Bhumika Shrestha becomes Nepal’s first transgender MP in more than a decade

Trans rights activist Bhumika Shrestha has been elected to Nepal’s parliament, becoming the first LGBTQ+ MP in the country in more than a decade.

The 37-year-old has been confirmed by Nepal’s Election Commission as a proportional representation MP for the centrist Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) following the country’s 5 March general election.

Shrestha will join the 275-member House of Representatives after the RSP secured a parliamentary majority with 182 seats.

“I am very excited but also feel the responsibility on my shoulders” – Bhumika Shrestha on being elected to Nepal’s parliament

The party won 125 of the 165 directly elected constituencies and gained a further 57 seats through the proportional representation system, leaving it just two seats short of a two-thirds majority.

“I am very excited but also feel the responsibility on my shoulders,” Shrestha told AFP.

“Our constitution has provisions for our community but they have not translated to laws and policies. Our community expects me to raise our issues (in parliament).”

The election was the first held since anti-corruption protests in September last year forced the previous government from power.

Supporters gathered at the Kathmandu office of LGBTQ organisation the Blue Diamond Society (BDS) to congratulate Shrestha after the result was confirmed. Well-wishers presented her with scarves, flowers and gifts, including a pen intended to represent the legislative authority she will hold in parliament.

“Our pains, our sufferings, our feeling, our stories and our every problem is only understood by us, not by others” – Umisha Pandey, president of BDS

Umisha Pandey, president of BDS, said the election carried particular significance for the community.

“Our pains, our sufferings, our feeling, our stories and our every problem is only understood by us, not by others,” Pandey said.

Nepal has introduced several legal protections for sexual and gender minorities over the past two decades. Discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity was outlawed in 2007. A third-gender category was added to citizenship documents in 2013, followed by passports with an “others” category in 2015.

In 2023, the Supreme Court issued an interim order allowing same-sex and transgender couples to register their marriages.

More than 900,000 people in Nepal identify as sexual or gender minorities, according to BDS.