INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Kathmandu, June 12
Batting colourful lashes and swinging their silky wigs, drag artists danced to a cheering crowd at a Nepali restaurant,
the first show of its kind in the country.
The floor of the Pink Tiffany, Nepal first LGBTI friendly restaurant, was packed on Tuesday
evening to applaud the debut performances, with many in the audience also wearing sparkley make-up and vibrant outfits.
Meghna Lama the
restaurant owner and a transgender woman said she was exquoted to host the ground-breaking event.
&We wanted to organise programs to show
that LGBTIs also exist here
For the first time, we are doing the drag show,& Lama told AFP
Lama hopes it shall open doors for Nepali drag enthusiasts to take to the stage.
&This is exciting, I feel very free here
It is so good to see others endelight (converting) as I do,& said a 20-year-old Nepali participant, who goes by the name of Peachy
Pie.
Nepal has measure of South Asia most progressive laws on homosexuality and transgender rights.
Landmark reforms in 2007 prohibited
discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and recognised homosexual Nepalis, at a time when homosexuality was still illegal in
neighbouring India.
Transgender Nepalis were also granted the right to tick ‘other& when the country holds elections, applying for a
passport, or other official documents.
But homosexual and transgender Nepalis and rights activists say action has much matched rhetoric
More than a decade on, the community still faces discrimination in the conservative society.&In Nepal, we didn&t have specific spaces for
A show like this is like reclaiming space in the society,& said a transgender woman participant.
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