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Nepal's 1st gay representative in Parliament

Thu 1 May 2008 In: International News View at Wayback

Nepal's historic election in April dethroned its king and gave power to the former Maoist guerrillas and will also see a social revolution with the first gay representative nominated to the new constituent assembly. Sunil Babu Pant Sunil Babu Pant, 35, a crusader for gay equality who founded the first organisation to protect the rights of the sexual minorities, has been chosen by a minor communist party to represent it in Nepal's 601-member constituent assembly, reports The Times of India. "We are honoured to send Pant as our representative to the constituent assembly," said Ganesh Shah of Communist Party, who's Communist Party of Nepal-United has won five seats in the assembly under the country's proportional representation system. "We hope it will improve the lives of a people who are the most repressed in Nepal, disowned both by society and their own families," he added. Pant founded the Blue Diamond Society in 2002, which is now one of the best known gay rights groups in South Asia. The Society fights for molested and detained gays, promotes HIV/AIDS awareness, runs a hospice for terminally ill gay patients, and provides training and jobs to members of the community.    

Credit: GayNZ.com News Staff

First published: Thursday, 1st May 2008 - 4:30pm

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