The Nepalese festival of Gai Jatra, used by the queer community of Nepal to celebrate pride in addition to honoring passed loved ones, was held for the first time since the country’s legalization of same-gender marriage in November of last year.
The event, held on August 20, includes a themed parade and dancing, involving men dressing up in women’s traditional wear (something pulled from the ancestral meaning behind the holiday, interestingly) and as cows, which are sacred in the Hindu religion. The parade, which was themed “Celebrate Culture, Embrace Gender Diversity” this year, is done in the belief that a parade on this day will send the souls of the deceased being honored to the afterlife.
Since 2003, Gai Jatra, while initially being an age-old holiday meant to remember passed loved ones, has been co-opted by the LGBTQ+ community of Nepal to also commemorate the lives of queer and trans Nepalis that have passed. The event is organized yearly by the LGBTQ+ organization Blue Diamond Society (BDS) and was initially started as a way to honor members of the queer community who were rejected by their families and not given proper funeral rites. Its ongoing celebration, in addition to functioning as a sort of Pride for Nepalis, it serves as a reminder that although attitudes towards the LGBTQ+ community are changing in Nepal, there is still a percentage of the population whose families refuse to accept their sexuality or gender identity.
In terms of legality, the final ruling on potential marriage equality in Nepal is still waiting in the Supreme Court. The Nepali government passed legislation this past April that requires local governments to recognize same-gender marriages legally, but it needs to be finalized by the Court in order for queer couples to be able to access other permissions of marriage such as adopting kids, tax subsidies, and joint medical decisions. If same-gender marriage is legalized by Nepal’s Supreme Court, they’ll be the third Asian country to do so, following in the footsteps of Taiwan and Thailand.
