Blue Diamond Society

Blue Diamond Society
Abbreviation BDS
Formation 2001
Type non-profit organization
Headquarters Kathmandu
Location
Founder/Director
 Sunil Babu Pant
Staff
 Over 9000
Website http://bds.org.np

The Blue Diamond Society(Nepali: नील हीरा समाज) is an LGBT rights organization in Nepal. It was founded in 2001 to advocate to change existing laws against homosexuality and to advocate for the rights of Nepal's marginalized gay, transgender and other sexual minority communities. Another major thrust of the organization's work was to provide care, counseling, and services to victims of HIV/AIDS. Blue Diamond Society is currently led by Executive Director Sudeep Bahadur Singh, and was founded and led until 2013 by Sunil Babu Pant, the first gay legislator in Nepal's history and one of 29 experts at the meeting for The Yogyakarta Principles. Sunil Pant and fellow human rights activists although filed a case with Nepal's Supreme Court in 2007 that led to a verdict by the Court ordering the government to scrap all laws discriminating against members of the LGBT community. The law also ordered the government to work on legalizing gay marriage.

Location

Blue Diamond Society currently has over 35 offices throughout Nepal. The head office lies in Dhumbarahi height, Kathmandu. It used to be in Shivabhakti Marg no. 344 Khursanitar, Lazimpat-2, Kathmandu, Nepal but now has changed its location.

Visions

  1. Societies which respect and value each sexual and gender minorities.
  2. Societies where each sexual and gender minorities can live with equal right and dignity.
  3. Societies where all sexual and gender minorities have hope and opportunities.

[1]

Achievements

  1. Sexual and gender minorities or LGBT communities gradually increasing their participation in social and national cause to demonstrate that they can contribute to the fellow members and to the society. They are giving their hand of solidarity to the cause of women, dalits, madhesis, differently-abled communities, sex workers, baadi community, labor, ethnics groups. And they are increasing their presence in the national events like Environment day, Republic Day, Human Rights day, World Aids day, Labour Day, Women Day, Democracy day, Day Against Homophobia and other movements which have a strong impact in the society and its people.
  2. Land marking decision of Supreme Court on 2007 AD ordering government to grant all the citizenry rights to Sexual and Gender Minorities in Nepal
  3. Sunil Babu Pant has already become a member in Constitution Assembly and Parliament of Nepal from Nepal Communist Party United
  4. Spanning of the BDS offices in 40 cities and 5 development regions of Nepal lead by the community members.
  5. Election Commission of Nepal has decided to mention “Third Gender” in its voter’s list form. In its previous form, there were Male and female in the gender column.
  6. One transgender woman, Bishnu Adhikary gets the citizenship ID in her own gender identity as ruled by the Supreme Court to the Government of Nepal in 2007 AD. This has encouraged other transgender citizens to demand for the identity in their own gender. Continuous lobbying, delegations and sit-in programs at the central to local level.
  7. More than 15 community-based organizations registered their offices in their locality and became a member of Federation of Sexual and gender Minorities Nepal.
  8. Among these organizations, more than five CBOs were able to get local government funding in their social development and skill development. The funds are utilized in skill building programs to the community persons and public sensitization program.
  9. More than three hundred thousand community members are in constant touch with Blue Diamond Society.
  10. The two constitutional subcommittee, Fundamental rights and state guiding directives committee and Marginalized and Minorities committee, mentioned the legal recognition and protective provisions for sexual and gender minorities in their preliminary drafts of the constitution. And in the discussion, the issues of LGBT are never debated. Every CA member has shown agreement on LGBT rights.
  11. Nepal government, for the second time allocated 3 million budget to this community.
  12. Federation of Sexual and Gender Minorities Nepal has been established to strengthen the networks between the community-based organizations working in different parts of Nepal. This is the Umbrella organization, under which Blue Diamond Society also is the member organization. Currently there are more than 15 CBOs associated with this Federation.
  13. Same sex marriage study committee has started its work on possible provisions for same sex marriage in Nepal.
  14. Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) of Nepal has decided to mention “third gender” in its population and household census form. In its previous form, there were only male and female in the category of sex/gender. It will be the stepping stone in Nepalese LGBT history to bring out the hidden population into government programs.
  15. Election Commission of Nepal has decided to mention “Third Gender” in its voter’s list form. In its previous form, there were Male and female in the gender column.
  16. Nepal government, for the second time allocated 3 million budget to this community.
  17. Investment Bank mentioned ”others” in the line of Male and Female of its Bank account form.
  18. National Human Rights Commission too mentioned ”others” in the line of Male and Female of its complaint form.
  19. Prioritization of support in social development of the sexual and gender minorities in Memorandum of Understanding held between Nepal government and Norwegian government in March 2009.
  20. Nai Prakashan, one of the eminent literary publication house, establish the award to recognize the person in the LGBT community who contributed to the society and their community. The award size in Nrs 10,000.00.
  21. The text book of social science in the Bachelors and Masters of the Government education Curriculum introduced LGBT definition.
  22. Establishing of Forum for student from sexual and gender minorities in Nepal, in which Roshan Mahato, the secretary of BDS and also the student in Trichandra Multiple College is heading that Forum. The main vision of this forum is to end discrimination and facilitate LGBT students to get higher education and other supports.
  23. At least once in a week, LGBT issues have been the constant feature in print and electronic media which helps in sensitizing the public at large.
  24. ABC National Television started to broadcast one episode per week as ” Third Sex” bringing out the issues from different dimensions of political, social and cultural aspect of LGBT. Every Tuesday at 7:30 PM–8:30 PM, Third sex program has been running.
  25. Blue Diamond Society is also pioneering the Pink Tourism in Nepal that encourages LGBT around the world to visit and spend their holiday time here in Nepal. BDS and Pink Travels and Tours jointly promoting LGBT tourism in Nepal.
  26. Sunil Babu Pant, Constitution Assembly Member is also engaging in the burning issue of Climate Change. He along with 11 other CA members visited Chitwan District and Mustang District to bring out the impact of Climate Change in those rural settings. He is also the coordinator of parliamentary committee on Climate Change mitigation team. He also actively participated in the Copenhagen Conference on Climate Change in Dec 7-19th 2009 AD
  27. There are increasing numbers of visitors, scholars, interns, volunteers and students to show willingness to study and understand the community issues. Currently, there are 8 interns, foreigners and the in-country members doing intern in the Blue Diamond Society and in its partner organizations.

Mission

  1. It fights for sexual and gender minority’s social justice and right.
  2. It delivers immediate and lasting improvements to the lives of sexual and gender minorities in Nepal and beyond.[2]

Awards

In 2007, the organization won the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission's (IGLHRC) Felipa de Souza Award

Pride Festival

Pride festival is organised by Blue Diamond Society annually on the day of Gai Jatra. The first annual pride festival in Nepal was held in 2010 in Kathmandu. The others were held in Biratnagar and Pokhara.

  1. ↑ http://bds.org.np/aboutus.html
  2. ↑ http://bds.org.np/human_rights.html

See also

External links