Nepal registers its historic first same-sex marriage

Nepal has registered its first same-sex marriage after years of legal wrangling. It is the first South Asian country to recognize a same-sex marriage.

Maya Gurung, a transgender woman, and Surendra Pandey, a gay man, were wed in 1997 in a traditional Hindu ceremony but were unable to have their marriage recognized by the government. Under Nepalese law, transgender women are unable to change their gender.

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The country’s constitution, adopted in 2015, forbids discrimination based on sexual orientation.

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In 2007, the country’s Supreme Court ordered the government to form a committee to prepare a law legalizing same-sex marriage. That committee recommended that the government “grant legal recognition to same-sex marriage on the basis of the principle of equality” in 2015.

Earlier this year, Nepal’s supreme court ordered the government to recognize the German same-sex spouse of a Nepali national. The couple, Adheep Pokhrel and Tobias Volz, were married in Germany, where same-sex marriage is legal, in 2018 but were denied a non-tourist visa for Volz by Nepali authorities. Pokhrel and Volz took their case all the way to the Supreme Court, citing a 2017 decision granting a non-tourist visa to Leslie Luin Melnik, the American wife of a Nepali lesbian, Suman Panta, as well as the court’s 2007 order.

In July, the court issued an interim order to allow same-sex couples and other LGBTQ+ couples to legally register their marriages while the government prepares legislation to amend the civil code and formally legalize same-sex marriage.

But officials had refused to recognize Gurung and Pandey’s marriage, citing a lack of clear instructions. The couple filed cases with the Kathmandu District Court and High Court, but their suits were rejected. But a change to the regulations at the Home Ministry this week allowed officials to move forward with the recognition process.

“After 23 years of struggle, we got this historic achievement, and finally Maya and Surendra got their marriage registered at the local administration office,” Sunil Babu Pant, a gay former parliamentarian and LGBTQ+ activist, said.