After India, it is now Nepal’s turn to openly embrace same sex couples. The Nepal Tourism Department is planning to promote gay weddings by holding same sex marriages at - where else but - Mount Everest!
The campaign was kicked off by the Nepal Tourism Minister sending a message to the International Conference on Gay & Lesbian Tourism in Boston - “As the world knows, Nepal is the land of Mount Everest, world’s highest peak and the birth place of Lord Buddha, light of Asia,” the message said. “I, therefore, would like to take this opportunity to invite and welcome all the sexual and gender minorities from around the world.” Nepal is also due to host the first Asian Symposium on Gay & Lesbian Tourism in Kathmandu in June.
One of the pioneers for this sudden change in Nepal’s policies is Sunil Babu Pant, Nepal’s leading gay rights activist and the only openly homosexual MP in South Asia. While some officials fear a backlash in more conservative rural areas, Mr. Pant says that most Nepalis are instinctively tolerant “as long you don’t walk naked or do something explicit”.
South Asia seems to be certainly expanding its horizons in unprecedented directions.
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