Draped in garlands, the 37‑year-old was confirmed by Nepal’s Election Commission as a proportional-representation MP for the centrist Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP), which won a majority in last week’s parliamentary elections.
Nepal marked a historic moment on Monday as Bhumika Shrestha became the country’s first transgender woman lawmaker.
Draped in garlands, the 37‑year-old was confirmed by Nepal’s Election Commission as a proportional-representation MP for the centrist Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP), which won a majority in last week’s parliamentary elections.
“I am very excited but also feel the responsibility on my shoulders,” said Shrestha, a longtime LGBTQ rights advocate.
“Our constitution has provisions for our community, but they have not been translated into laws and policies. Our community expects me to raise our issues in parliament.”
Shrestha will take her seat in the 275-member House of Representatives, elected on March 5, the first vote since last September’s anti-corruption protests toppled the government.
The RSP, led by rapper-turned-politician Balendra Shah, won 125 of 165 directly elected seats and secured 57 more through proportional representation, falling just two seats short of a two-thirds majority.
Umisha Pandey, president of the Blue Diamond Society (BDS), a leading LGBTQ rights group, called Shrestha’s election “historic.”
“Our pains, our sufferings, our feelings, our stories and every problem is only understood by us, not by others,” Pandey said.
Supporters gathered at the BDS office in Kathmandu to celebrate, presenting Shrestha with scarves, flowers, and gifts, including a pen symbolising her new legislative role.
Nepal has some of South Asia’s most progressive LGBTQ laws. Discrimination based on gender or sexual orientation was outlawed in 2007, a third-gender option was added to citizenship documents in 2013, and passports with an “others” category were introduced in 2015.
In 2023, the Supreme Court issued an interim order allowing same-sex and transgender couples to register their marriages.
Despite these advances, no member of the LGBTQ community has held public office since 2008, when an openly gay man became a lawmaker through proportional representation. More than 900,000 people in Nepal identify as sexual minorities, according to BDS.
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