Nepal’s first openly gay MP has secured the opening of the country’s first gender-neutral toilet.
The public convenience, paid for by a Parliamentary Development Fund, will opened next week in the western city of Nepalgunj under the auspices of Sunil Pant.
Mr Pant told PinkNews.co.uk “I decided to use part of my Parliamentary Development Fund to build the toilet that is “for all”, not just for men and women. Toilets and places for praying are simultaneously private and public place, but for those people who don’t identify as male or female, accessing these places might mean that they have to reveal an intimately private aspect of their lives to strangers and authorities and still can be denied access.
“This can cause huge amount of stress for “third-genders and/or others” as these places has been build exclusively only for male and female these days in this modern world.
“So, this new toilet in Nepalgunj allows every one with equal access and they can use toilet without fear of exclusion. This facility is “dream coming true” out of Jog-Jakarta-Principle which declares gender is self identified and access to public facility and services are ensured to every one regardless of gender identities and sexual orientations.”
He added: “I am very happy that another chapter of history is being written in Nepalgunj on LGBTI liberation.”
The toilet will be unveiled on March 27 at 1PM in Bageshoweri Park, Nepalgunj.
In 2010, a foreign gay couple unofficially married in Nepal in a ceremony organised by Sunil Pant’s gay group Blue Diamond Society.
Mr Pant said the Society was receiving a number of wedding queries from gay couples, including gay Indian prince Manvendra Singh Gohil, and that while other gay couples in the country had been married by priests, the British-Indian gay pair were the first overseas visitors to tie the knot.
by Stephen Gray
source – PinkNews
