Nepal government begins crackdown on gays


Kathmandu - Nepal’s vulnerable gay community, who had taken part in the popular protests against King Gyanendra’s regime, are now being targeted by the new ‘democratic’ government they supported to power, a gay rights organisation said.
The new government of Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala, that was sworn in May and pledged to uphold democracy and human rights, has now started a cleansing drive against homosexuals in the capital, arbitrarily arresting them, detaining them illegally and beating them up in police lock-ups, according to the Blue Diamond Society, Nepal’s most prominent gay rights organisation.

Sunil Pant, president of Blue Diamond Society, says the new drive against metis - homosexual men who dress up as women - began about a month ago.

Metis are being prevented from moving around in the capital, especially in the Thamel area, that is the capital’s tourist hub and a prime destination for male prostitutes.

Last month, three metis were arrested from the Thamel area because they were carrying condoms. This month, five more were arrested from a dance bar in another area of the capital.

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Backing gay rights

NEW DELHI: Author Vikram Seth and Nobel laureate Amartya Sen are leading a group of activists seeking de-criminalisation of gay sex between consenting adults and demanding a repeal of Section 377 of IPC, which prescribes punishments for gays.

In open letters to the Government of India, the group, which has several actors and social activists, said Section 377, by making same-sex relations a crime, violates fundamental human rights of gay and bisexual men and women.

"It is disgraceful that Section 377 has on several recent occasions been used by officials to suppress the work of legitimate HIV-prevention groups, leaving gay and bisexual men even more defenceless," said Seth in his letter released on Saturday at the launch of a campaign in Delhi.

Economist Amartya Sen, in a separate letter of support to the campaign, stated that criminalisation of gay behaviour also curbed the enhancement of human freedoms.

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Notables Urge India to End 145-Year Ban on Gay Sex


NEW DELHI, Sept. 15 — A British-era relic is facing a new challenge in India, as a growing citizens’ movement rallies against a 145-year-old law still embedded in the Indian penal code that bans gay sex

On Saturday an open letter to the government will be officially unveiled, calling for the repeal of what is known by its official moniker, Section 377, which makes “carnal intercourse against the order of nature with man, woman or animal” punishable by 10 years in prison.