Queer Youth Group (QYG)
QYG began as a loose network in 2018 and registered as a not for profit in 2020. We are a group led by young queer people between ages of 18 to 25 and we work for the advancement of queer rights in Nepal. We understand queer as an umbrella term that refers to people who aren’t cisgender and heterosexual.
Here are two things we mostly did in 2020.
1. Publications: Nepal’s diverse societies are yet to understand and embrace the diversity of Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity and Sex Characteristics (SOGIESC). While lack of awareness is a problem, lack of resources and materials to foster awareness and education contributes to the problem further. Therefore, we are creating educational materials in the national languages of Nepal. In 2020, we published three books.
a. A Basic Understanding on SOGIESC: This publication explains several terminologies of SOGIESC, gives an insight into the diversity of SOGIESC.
b. Charter of Demands on Legal Recognition of Gender Identity: This publication is a list of demands we have put forth the state, on formulating legislation for recognition of gender identity. It dwells into the diverse issues of transgender, non-binary, third gender and intersex people with their documentation issues and legal barriers, and puts a solution on how it can be tackled.
c. Ministry of Home Affairs’ directive on ‘other gender’: This publication explains why the ‘Other gender’ law in Nepal is problematic and what implications has it led, also introducing to how the problem can be solved.
d. A Bill regarding Gender Identity, 2021 (Draft): We participated in the process of formulation of a draft/sample bill proposing an act to address the issue of gender identity.
2. Writ petitions: We have identified several exclusionary and discriminative laws in Nepal, that deny rights to queer people, and therefore we have filed writ petitions at the Supreme Court of Nepal challenging the law and demanding an amendment ensuring rights for queer people.
a. Writ number 077-WO-0695: – This is a 50-page long petition that challenges all legislations that deny transgender, non-binary and intersex people be able to acquire and amend their citizenship certificate, birth certificate, national identity card, educational documents, drivers license, passport, and all personal documentations on basis of one’s gender identity.
b. Writ number 077-WO-0973: – We take an example of a trans rights activist who was denied of amendment of educational certificates, consequently leading to the discrepancy of name and gender marker, which was used as an excuse to deny her from registering in a university. This writ petition raises the issue of binary transgender people in Nepal, who are long obliged to identify as ‘third gender’ legally, following the verdict of 2007 and the Home Ministry’s directive of 2012.
c. Writ number 077-WO-1243: – The National Census 2021, groups Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Intersex (LGBTI) as ‘third gender’. We challenge this definition and demand to distinguish between Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity and Sex Characteristics. We also demand addressing several concerns of the queer community including privacy concerns, data security, census methodology, etc.
d. Writ number 077-WO-1244: – We take the example of a trans rights activist, and challenge the provision of mentioning transgender people as ‘third gender’ in voter id cards. This petition was filed separately from the one in point b since the Election Commission also revealed all personal information of voters, put a notice in every district and local level with gender segregation.
e. Writ number 078-WO-0375: – Some universities of Nepal in their Law Faculty had ascribed in their curriculum that homosexuality and lesbianism is ‘unnatural sex’. We challenged the curriculum’s such mention and demanded homosexuality and lesbianism be removed from such category of ‘unnatural sex’ and establish a section as SOGIESC rights that teach issues of queer people and law.
We do several other piece-meal works, such as organizing awareness programs and events. We also organize Nepal’s first independent Pride Parade and have claimed the Second Saturday of June as Pride Day of Nepal. We also organize Queer Womxn Pride, Queer Indigenous Pride and Trans Pride Parade. [More information on www.nepalprideparade.com]
We want to continue doing the work
Most of our publications have been in the standardized dialect of the Khas language (also officially known as the Nepali language). We want to publish such content in as many Nepali languages as possible. Our focus in the first round will be on languages that are officially recognized at province level. We want to continue writing more and create quality content and literature on SOGIESC in Nepali languages.
Our content is mostly written literature, which caters to certain kind of populations. We want to diversify our forms of content, such as audiobooks, braille books, videos and illustrations.
We want to continue fighting for our rights, through the petitions we’ve already filed and the petitions we will file in future. We want to file petitions on several pressing issues, such as the rape laws (that says only addresses cis women who have been raped), the inclusion of SOGIESC in education, X gender passports, inclusive representation in government, etc.
What do we need
QYG does not have any form of donor agency funding. We mostly rely on our own chip in, Our Executive Director, who is mostly full time engaged in the work, does not have a salary. Our publications are mostly stored online on a free domain (such as https://archive.org/details/@queer_youth_group_nepal). The costs for filing writ petitions come from our own pockets. The legal representatives have been kind enough to do the pro-bono, but we see that it isn’t a long term solution. We have many expenses such as visiting the government office, petitioning them, the administrative costs that we pay to the government for our registration, auditing annually, materials like stationery, lodge books, stamps, files, A4 size papers.
| S.N. | Purpose | Rate | Quantity | Cost | USD |
| 1 | Writ petition | 180,000 | 1538.46 | ||
| 2 | Personnel | 1,040,000 | 8889 | ||
| 3 | Auditing, and Organization Renewal Costs | 30,000 | Once annually | 60,000 | 512.82 |
| 4 | Miscellaneous | 50,000 | n/a | 54,000 | 461.54 |
| 5 | Meetings(Board and Volunteers) | 1,000 | 12 months | 60,000 | 512.82 |
| Grand total | 1,394,000 | 11914.53 |