It has become clear that Nepal wants to strengthen ties with India. One can only hope that the first step towards that wouldn’t be re-criminalising homosexuality in Nepal, mirroring the Supreme Court judgment on Section 377 in India.
Nepal may pass laws recriminalizing gay sex, making it an offence punishable with three years of imprisonment, LGBT news website Gay Star News has reported. The report quoted former Nepal parliamentarian Sunil Pant as saying that the current law and justice ministry Narahari Acharya planned to push these laws through.
A Gay Pride rally in Nepal. AFP.
The new draft laws will reportedly not just criminalise homosexuality but also sexual acts such as oral sex and anal sex. “The irony is that the UNDP funded the original two committees to draft these codes and said they did not have any clue what was being drafted. At least they should have been more vigilant whether their aid is being abused, misused or used properly,” Pant said.
An openly gay politician in Nepal as well as a gay rights activist, Pant was nominated this year for the Nobel Peace Prize for his work with theorganisation Blue Diamond Society, the largest LGBT rights group in Nepal which he founded.
