Nepal’s Maobadi stress commitment to LGBT liberation
This news is espescially positive since there have been reports in the past of some members of the UCPN (M), including leading ones, making homophobic remarks. That said the Maoists have since shown in practice that this is a thing of the past – when in government they enacted progressive legislation in support of LGBT rights.As I wrote in January this year in my article “Nepal – A Revolution in Progress“;Despite the endless deadlocks caused by the resistance of its coalition partners, the Maoist government has still managed to enact some progressive social change. It has abolished slavery, banning the Haliya system of bonded agricultural labour.
It has also given formal recognition to Third Gender people, with a 21 year old lesbian woman receiving the first identity card stating her gender as “Third” in early September. This is an extremely radical move considering how dominated Nepal is by its feudal culture, with all the backward ideas that entails. Nepal’s first openly gay MP has been elected to the Constituent Assembly, representing a minor communist party separate from the Maoists. Despite the fact that he is not in the CPN (M), the conditions for his election only exist because of the new, revolutionary culture the Maoists are trying to create.
The gay Constituent Assembly member, Sunil Babu Pant, who represents the Communist Party of Nepal (United), a much smaller left wing group, was later sent overseas by Prachanda (back when he was Prime Minister) to represent Nepal at the United Nations General Assembly, to support a statement recognising human rights violations on sexual orientation and gender identity. The speech he gave can be read here.
The Maoists had also allocated money in their proposed budget to build community centres for homeless transgender people, but unfortunately the collapse of the government they led most likely means this never was accomplished.
It’s also kind of interesting (and came as a complete surprise to me!) that Georgina Beyer, who was the Labour Party MP for the Wairarapa, is in Nepal at the moment and was quoted in this article! I continue to seeth with jealousy ad frustration that non-communists are visiting a country going through revolutionary ferment while I’m stuck in little old New Zealand… *sighs*
KATHMANDU, Sept 6 – Babu Ram Bhattarai, former finance minister and UCPN (Maoist) leader, has stated his party’s commitment to equal rights and opportunities for all in every respect regardless of gender and sexual orientation.
Speaking at a programme organised by the Blue Diamond Society on Friday, Dr. Bhattarai said that these rights are to be legalised explicitly in the new constitution of Nepal.
He went on to condemn the misconceptions and discrimination regarding these issues today. As Sangita Karki, a transsexual woman also present at the event, said “In any government job or educational/financial institution, we are not getting equal opportunities. We are deprived of citizenship with our own identity.”
Although the present constitution has acknowledged the rights of gender minorities, they continue to be marginalised in the real world.
Georgina Beyer – the world’s first openly transsexual Member of Parliament, and a a former MP in New Zealand - was optimistic of the future.
“At least Nepal has started a public discourse on the rights of sexual and gender minorities. It’s a positive sign of Nepal as a democratic country,” she said. Beyer is in Nepal as part of a goodwill visit and to give support to the other transsexuals to fight for their equal rights.
According to Ram Sharan Mahat, former finance minister and a leader of the Nepali Congress, the third gender in Nepali society has already made a lot of progress in gaining social recognition in a short period. He feels that society has now recognised the need for anti-discriminatory laws. “It is our commitment that in the upcoming constitution, no minority group should face discrimination,” Mahat added.
Posted on: 2009-09-05 22:55:53 (Server Time)
While the leader of the Blue Diamond Society is not a member of the UCPN (M), I’m pretty sure his party – the Communist Party of Nepal United – would still call itself Maoist, though I understand that the term has come to be used for the UCPN (M)in particular.
Of the other, non-UCPN (M) Communist Parties with representation in Parliament, the CPNU was the only one which refused to endorse and support the post-Prachanda Prime Minister from the CPN UML, in practice lining up with the UCPN (M).
The UCPN (M)’s homophobia went well beyond just words, by the way, to actions and expulsions of members and even violence, most notably from the party’s youth organisation. While the UCPN (M) has taken massive and concrete steps to shift views and practices within the party, these are still recent, indeed were taken partly in response to almost equally recent violence and threats of violence by party members. To say that it is all in the past, as you do, is more than a little hasty and optimistic, I think, despite these bold steps.
Only a few years ago almost the entire spectrum of the Nepalese Left was virulently homophobic, declaring homosexuality as a sign of decadence which was either non-existent in Nepal or an effect of imperialism. That this has changed is in no small measure a consequence of the struggles of the Blue Diamond Society and others against homophobia, including within the Maoists but extending far far beyond – struggles in which the CPNU played an early role also.
Thus I think that to say that “the conditions for his election only exist because of the new, revolutionary culture the Maoists are trying to create”, while in several senses correct, is also a little one-sided.
Ben
September 16, 2009 at 2:00 pm
Thanks for the comment Ben.
//The UCPN (M)’s homophobia went well beyond just words, by the way, to actions and expulsions of members and even violence, most notably from the party’s youth organisation. While the UCPN (M) has taken massive and concrete steps to shift views and practices within the party, these are still recent, indeed were taken partly in response to almost equally recent violence and threats of violence by party members. To say that it is all in the past, as you do, is more than a little hasty and optimistic, I think, despite these bold steps.//
That’s a fair call. What I was trying to say was not so much that things were all perfect now with regard to changing the homophobic practices of the party, but rather that the signs seem to be that there has been a change of attitude at the top and the party leadership now intend to steer the party away from the admittedly bad practice of the past.
And I also agree that to say “the conditions for his election only exist because of the new, revolutionary culture the Maoists are trying to create” is somewhat one sided. I think it’s TRUE, but your right, the picture is more complex than that one sentence quote makes it out to be (this is more due to time and word constraints on m,y original article that prevented from going into detail and researching the history of the gay liberation struggle in Nepal than any attempt to whitewash history on my part).
There’s a two way relationship here. The increasing assertiveness of gay people led to communists, both in the UCPN (M) and outside of it, as well as ordinary people in general, having to examine their attitudes, it wasn’t just a one sided thing of the eternally perfect Maoists trying to change things for the better.
Thanks for the insightful comment mate, keep em coming.
Alastair Reith
September 17, 2009 at 1:56 am