KATHMANDU – Bhumika Shrestha, a 37-year-old LGBTQ rights activist, was sworn in on March 16 as Nepal’s first transgender woman lawmaker, draped in garlands amid cheers from supporters in a landmark win for the country’s marginalized communities.
The Election Commission certified Shrestha as a proportional-representation MP for the centrist Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP), which clinched 182 seats in the 275-member House of Representatives,falling just short of a two-thirds majority after securing 125 direct seats and 57 more via proportional allocation.
“I am very excited but also feel the responsibility on my shoulders,” Shrestha told reporters. She vowed to champion unfulfilled constitutional protections for her community, turning advocacy into legislation and policy.
The victory follows Nepal’s March 5 polls, the first since anti-corruption protests ousted the government in September 2025. RSP, headed by rapper-turned-politician Balendra Shah, rode a wave of public support to dominate the election.
Umisha Pandey, head of the Blue Diamond Society (BDS), Nepal’s leading LGBTQ organization, hailed the moment as “historic.” “Our pains, sufferings, feelings, stories, and problems are only understood by us,” Pandey said, as well-wishers at BDS headquarters in Kathmandu showered Shrestha with scarves, flowers, and a symbolic pen for her parliamentary duties.
Nepal boasts some of South Asia’s most advanced LGBTQ protections: discrimination bans since 2007, third-gender citizenship from 2013, “others” passports in 2015, and a 2023 Supreme Court order enabling same-sex and transgender marriage registrations. Yet no community member has held elected office since 2008, when an openly gay man served via proportional nomination. BDS estimates over 900,000 Nepalis identify as sexual minorities.