Nepal to Promote Gay Weddings on Everest

(The Times of London) - As it moves to become the first nation in Asia to allow same-sex marriages, Nepal is promoting gay weddings on Mt Everest in an attempt to become the continent’s top gay tourism destination, The Times reported on Wednesday.

“We’re completely changing this country. It’s a newborn republic -- and we want to showcase this change,” Sharat Singh Bhandari, the Tourism Minister, said.

“We also want to re-establish tourism as a major industry.”

He aims to attract one million tourists to the Himalayan nation in 2011, more than double the number last year.

He kicked off the marketing campaign in October with a written message to the International Conference on Gay & Lesbian Tourism in Boston -- an unprecedented gesture for an Asian minister.

“As the world knows, Nepal is the land of Mount Everest, world’s highest peak and the birth place of Lord Buddha, light of Asia,” the message said. “I, therefore, would like to take this opportunity to invite and welcome all the sexual and gender minorities from around the world.”

Nepal is also due to host the first Asian Symposium on Gay & Lesbian Tourism in Kathmandu in June.

This sudden turnaround highlights the extraordinary change that has swept the country since a democratic uprising forced King Gyanendra to renounce absolute power in 2006 and the Maoists won power, abolishing the world’s last Hindu monarchy two years later.

As recently as 2007, Nepal classified homosexuality as a crime, punishable by up to two years in prison.

Gays and lesbians were harassed and beaten by police, and denounced by Maoist rebels as “a product of capitalism.”

The new republic is still unstable, with the Maoists and their rival parties unlikely to agree on a new constitution -- supposed to guarantee gay rights -- by a deadline of May 28.

But a same-sex marriage law is working its way through parliament after a Supreme Court ruling in 2008 that ordered the Government to safeguard the rights of "sexual minorities."

And the tourism board is already talking about same-sex weddings on Mt Everest, elephant safaris for gay honeymooners and other specialist activities.

Source: The Times of London

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