Rupak D Sharma in Pattaya

Anjali Lama, a transvestite from Nepal, was struck with a mixture of pride and embarrassment when she came to Thailand to participate in the world’s biggest transsexual/transgender beauty pageant. 

She was proud because she received an opportunity to represent her conservative country in an international event but embarrassed because she knew she could never compete physically with other contenders.

She was bold and outspoken, even the organisers agreed to it. And her five-feet-nine-inch slim body had cast spell on some people from the fashion industry. But these characteristics, according to her, were not enough to leave a mark in the contest.

“See how others have come here,” the 23-year-old said, pointing at other participants at Tiffany’s backstage in Pattaya, where Miss International Queen 2007 was held. “They are followed by a troop of dress designers and make-up assistants, whereas, for us, we even had to rent the dresses.”

This was probably bothering her so much that she didn’t seem to be at ease even minutes before the final contest was about to begin. She was smiling and trying to look calm but the sense of defeatism–an upshot of inferiority complex–was clearly visible in her mannerism.

She finally broke: “It really hurts, you know, to have come so far with hopes of taking something back to the country but being unable to deliver our best performance.”

Nepal, a small landlocked country located between India and China, was represented by Anjali, Akanchya Moktan, 21, and Bhumika Shrestha, 19, in the pageant. This was Nepali transvestites’ first participation in an international pageant and they were contending against 21 transvestites/transgenders from 15 countries in the final round.

Like what Lama had said, most of the other participants were well prepared for the competition. They were donning dresses that cost up to one million baht (US$33,000), had taken advantage of the latest technologies to enhance their beauty and undergone surgeries to create artificial bosoms.

“But look at our participants,” said Sunil Babu Pant, president of Blue Diamond Society, the only organisation that looks after the welfare of gays and transvestites in Nepal. “These were factors that prohibited us from stepping up the ladder of success, as the competition included swimwear and eveningwear rounds like in any other beauty pageant and judges demanded flawless bodies,” Pant said while pointing at Nepali contestants who had stuffed paper to create breasts and until the final day had not put on any make-up.

At times Pant seemed to be drifting away from the fact that Nepal is one of the poorest countries in the world with per capita income of less than US$300, where investment in cosmetic surgeries was not affordable by everyone.

But as he went on it was evident that his anger had not stemmed from inability of Nepali participants to undergo breast transplant surgeries or avail of cutting edge technology to enrich their beauty.

In fact, he was annoyed by the government and private sector’s apathy. He was annoyed by the fact that Nepali participants did not get any sponsors and had to withdraw their hard earned salaries in advance to collect a fee of US$200 each to participate in the event. And he was annoyed that his organisation could do very little to help them.

“See how hard it is for us,” Pant said, indicating that gays and transvestites are treated worse than third class citizens in Nepal and do not receive support from any sector of the society.

Nepal, the land of Mount Everest and birth place of Lord Buddha, despite claiming to be opening up and blowing horns about creating an equity based society, is still intolerant and prejudiced towards gays and transvestites.

It’s a country where most of the people frown upon sexual minorities, and transvestites often become victims of police brutality just because of their sexual orientation.

“We are discriminated, abused and victimised in every step of our life,” said Shrestha, the winner of Miss Transgender Nepal 2007. “Even educated people, who talk about equal rights, tend to discriminate us. And big politicians, who talk sweetly in front, backstab us.”  Shrestha, who was expelled from a high school for defying instructions to act as a boy, said she earlier used to curse herself for being born differently. “But since I knew I could not change my behaviour, I had to accept the reality and move on.”

People like Shrestha are moving on with their lives. They are not happy with society’s attitude towards them and they have learned to keep the pains to themselves. But how long will they have to live an oppressed life full of fear? When will Nepalis recognise their human dignity? And when will the society accept them as they are?

Nepal, probably, should learn lessons from more tolerant countries like Thailand, where the government supports events like Miss International Queen and transvestites and transsexuals pageants are shown live on television. (Published in Asia News)