A modest house in Baluwatar, just five minute’s walk from the prime minsiter’s residence, has become the official home of Nepal’s lesbians as they come out in the open.

Most members of Mitini Nepal were fired from their jobs or ostracised by their families and communities after they were found out. Here, they get skills training and learn to be beauticians and office assistants so they can be financially independent.

With help from Austrian and Norwegian groups, Mitini members also conduct research and outreach to find out more about lesbians who still haven’t come out in the open. So far, Mitini has a data base of more than 1,200 women, most are middle class, some are from the upper crust of Nepali society, there are atheletes, policewomen, and soldiers.

Mitini was set up two years ago, but Nepal’s low-profile lesbian community hit the headlines this week after two soldiers at an army base in Bhaktapur were detained and discharged for alleged homosexual behaviour. Media coverage of the issue and international outrage forced the army to backtrack and reinstate the women this week.

The human rights of Nepal’s gender and sexual minorities is being raised with government officials and MPs by lawyers and activists. They have demanded a ‘third gender’ status to transgendered people, and guarantee of representation at policy making levels.

Sunil Pant, an activist with the gay rights group, Blue Diamond Society, says the army’s dismissal is the first reported incident of discrimination in the military, but it isn’t uncommon.

“For a long time we have suspected and heard of discrimination and harassment, but the victims don’t know where to go and ask for help,” Pant told us. He also wonders why only women are being targeted. “There must be so many gay men in the army, have their cases ever come out?” he asks.

Advocate Sharmila Dhakal is glad the Nepal Army retracted its dismissal of the women. “But it proves that there are many in the army who are conservative,” she says.

Says one Mitini member: “Society will take time to change its attitude, but if the law protected us we would feel safer 

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