Advocacy for better access to mental health for the LGBTQIA+ community in Nepal.
Bibek is an intersectional Queer youth activist and proud gay man, who grew up in a supportive family. However, he witnessed the plight of the LGBTQIA+ community within the society and realized that interventions are lacking when it comes to access to mental health facilities for the senior/older members. His goal is to provide quality access to the same.
Ajay S. is a very cheerful person. He is a big fan of Bollywood movies and loves to dance to classic Bollywood songs. Since 2004, very secretly he has been involved in LGBTIQ+ program. He remembers when a few people in “Rantpark” were distributing condoms and lube and they told them about HIV and STIs. According to Ajay, at that time it was challenging to speak about gay-, lesbian-, bisexual-, or transgender- terminology openly.
Ajay grew up as a single male child in his family. Due to family pressure and expectations, he thought that every man needed to marry and have children. Because the children would be taking care of him when he gets old.
So, he got married. His wife didn’t know about his sexual orientation because Ajay has never told her. Even at that time, he didn’t think it was important to tell her. He said that he felt very selfish because he didn’t think once about women’s lives. He was just concerned about his family and taking advantage of his male privilege. Even after marriage, Ajay was still meeting with male friends. He said that during intercourse with his wife, he felt disgusted, and he frequently questioned himself about his decisions.
Once married, his daily life became very difficult because he was living two lives and it was hard to manage his true identity and his social married life. Now, he wasn’t just struggling with his wife and family, but he has many grandchildren who are frequently questioning him about his behavior. At this age, he regrets his decision. According to him he never forgave himself. Now he is doing nothing, just living at home, and sometimes secretly joining programs and meeting with other men. He said that hiding his true identity feels like he is a criminal, and this impacted both his mental and physical well-being.
Ajay’s story is only one of many lgbtqi+ members in Nepal. It is thus, that Bibek is driven to make a difference.