'Gender discrimination' is a familiar set of words in the context of Nepal.

Every now and then, we witness a debate on gender-based issues in Nepali society. Men's domination in every sector continues, which is considered a normal thing in this patriarchal society. Women have always been on the receiving side in most of cases.

But lately, things have changed. Women are seen fighting against the violation of their rights, which is a good sign. Equality is a must for the sake of a community's development. A lot of social issues like this are being talked about in the country at the moment.

If we tilt our head on the other side, we see a swarm of people associated with the political parties running movements to make sure their rights and demands are not overlooked.

Almost everyone is fighting for one or the other thing.

Feminists across the nation are waving the flag of feminism, protesting against patriarchy and demanding equality.

Activists from different fields spill onto the streets to fight against the wicked system.

The population of the victimised group in Nepal isn't small, and the governing party barely attends to the voice of the victims.

Amid all this, there is a group of people whose voice is seldom taken into account. They go largely unnoticed. Nobody sees their pain and suffering.

I'm not talking about Dalits or any ethnic group. I'm talking about that marginalised group that is opposed for what they are.

While filling up the official forms, you might have seen three options when it comes to choosing a gender.

Have you ever thought of that 'other' gender? In Nepali society, people who belong to the 'other' gender are treated as characters to laugh at.

Nothing can be more shameful than to laugh at someone's sexual identity.

The mainstream media also fails to cover the issues faced by the queer population.

This has to change.

A large number of people are still ignorant about the third gender. There's a misconception that every person belonging to the third gender is gay, which is not true.

There is diversity even between homosexual people, which many people fail to understand. This is happening because we are made to feel shy to talk about sexuality.

Sexuality should be openly discussed from the grassroots level. Awareness about sexual health is included in the school's curriculum, but not enough space has been given for the sexuality of the queer population.

For many people, homosexuality is something out of this world. Every human should at least be aware about people's sexual identity and orientation. We should have knowledge about this matter to ease the lives of the queer population, who are struggling in many ways.

Queer people are reluctant to expose their sexual identity because our society has failed to embrace them with open arms. Society treats them as abnormal humans, and it directly impacts their mental health. Change is a must.

To start with, basic information about LGBTQ should be included in the school curriculum so that every individual can learn to embrace someone with a unique sexual identity.

By teaching the students about diverse people in the world, they will learn to accept and respect such people.

LGBTQ functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity and is used to generalise those people of a homosexual nature.

LGBTQ stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer. So those we simply label 'gay' might be quite different from our perception as all homosexuals have a unique identity.

If we understand all these identities, it will help the queer community to live more comfortably. A lesbian is a woman who is interested in another woman. In simple words, any woman who isn't sexually interested in the opposite gender can be called a lesbian.

We are quite familiar with the term 'gay'. It refers to men who are sexually interested in other men only.

Similarly, a person who is emotionally or sexually attracted to more than one gender is termed bisexual.

A bisexual can have both male and female organs.

'T' in LGBTQ stands for transgender. A transgender person shows behaviour or desires that do not match the sex they were assigned to at birth.

If someone were born with male sex organs, but developed a desire to dress and behave like a woman while growing up, such a person would be identified as a transgender person.

The last letter, 'Q' in LG- BTQ, refers to all homosexual people. Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender all fall in the group of queer people.

In 2008, Bishnu Adhikari was for the first time registered under the 'third gender' category as ruled by the Supreme Court, encouraging other third gender persons to demand correct legal identification and correct gender in the citizenship and identifications papers.

However, even after thirteen years of registering Adhikari as a third gender, the gap between homosexuals and heterosexuals still prevails.

This is not to say efforts aren't being made to ease the lives of queer people.

Blue Diamond Society, an organisation established in 2001 for the queer community, has all along been actively advocating for change in the existing laws against homosexuality and speaking for the rights of Nepal's marginalised gay, transgender and other sexual minority communities.

In addition, we should be more cooperative and friendly with queer people at the individual level.

Queer people are struggling on their own, but by developing knowledge about them and understanding their sexuality, we can narrow the bridge between homosexual and heterosexual people.

Discrimination isn't good at all, but to discriminate against someone on the basis of sex is the most sinful act one can do. First of all, we are humans regardless of gender. Whatever the sexuality, we all should have the liberty to live the life of our choice. A version of this article appears in the print on December 8, 2021 of The Himalayan Times.