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Nepal gay marriage 'victory' hits legal roadblock [1]

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Date: 2024-05 

Maya Gurung and Surendra Pandey were poised to create history.

Maya is a transgender woman but has not changed her gender on official documents. Her partner Surendra is a gay man.

They were to be Nepal's first same-sex couple to legally get married, following an interim order from the country's Supreme Court that directed the government to register such unions until it prepared legislation to change the law.

The couple had a temple wedding ceremony in 2017 but wanted their union to be legally recognised.

The order was hailed by progressives as a historic one that would bring relief to same-sex couples in the Himalayan nation.

But the couple's dreams were not to be.

On 13 July, the district court in Nepal's capital Kathmandu, refused to register their marriage, arguing that lower courts were not bound to follow the interim order as it was only directed at the government.

"We had many dreams, but they are now shattered," Ms Gurung told the BBC. "It made us feel like we are not citizens of this country."

The couple has lodged an appeal at a High Court in the city of Patan, but the hearing has been postponed five times already.

The district court's refusal to register the marriage is being seen as a fresh setback to decades of progress Nepal has made to improve legal protections and social acceptance of sexual minorities.

Pinky Gurung, who leads LGBTQ rights group, Blue Diamond Society, says the community still has "a long fight" to achieve marriage equality.

"The court, especially the Supreme Court, is the only entity that has favoured us many times."

Sunil Babu Pant, who was the country's first openly gay MP, and the founder of Blue Diamond Society, has called the "lingering" process "unjust to the entire sexual and gender minority community".

"We pushed Maya and Surendra's case as a test. Once their marriage gets registered, all other aspiring couples will be able to register their marriage."

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[1] Url: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-66164531

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