TL;DR
- Nepal held its first Pride since Trump axed major foreign aid programs.
- Hundreds marched in Kathmandu during the Gai Jatra festival.
- Signs championed trans rights, intersectionality, and queer visibility.
- USAID cuts shut down key LGBTQ support centers, including HIV prevention programs.
- Nepal recently legalized same-sex marriage, joining Taiwan and Thailand in Asia.
Pride Against the Odds in Kathmandu
Nepal’s queer community isn’t here for anyone’s pity — they’re here to party, protest, and prove a point. This weekend, Kathmandu erupted in color as hundreds joined the 2025 Nepal Pride parade, the first since former U.S. President Donald Trump gutted foreign aid, wiping out over 80% of USAID programs in the country.
The timing was symbolic: the Pride march coincided with the traditional Gai Jatra festival, a day of remembrance for loved ones lost. But along with honoring the dead, the city’s streets came alive with the living — waving Progress Pride, Trans Pride, Lesbian Pride, and Asexual Pride flags high against the August sun. Hand-painted signs read like a queer manifesto: “Pride for all intersectional queer identities”, “Transgender men are men”, and “Transgender women are women.”
Cuts That Cut Deep
While the march was a celebration, it was also a defiant response to the damage left behind by Trump’s foreign aid cuts. USAID funding once kept Nepal’s LGBTQ community centers alive — places where queer people could find HIV prevention resources, safe sex education, and basic health care without judgment. Now, many of those centers are shuttered. “Vital” programs, including free condom distribution and sexual health screenings, have vanished with the funding.
It’s not just Nepal that’s feeling the sting. Similar cuts hit LGBTQ-inclusive programs in India and the UK, proving that when a political leader swings a budget axe, the reverberations travel far.
Marriage Equality Momentum
Despite these setbacks, Nepal is holding its head high in the global LGBTQ movement. In 2023, the Supreme Court ruled that same-sex marriage could be legally registered, making Nepal the second country in Asia to achieve marriage equality after Taiwan. Last year, a lesbian couple made history as the first to have their marriage officially recognized. And in 2025, Thailand joined the list, becoming the first in Southeast Asia to legalize it.
For Nepal’s LGBTQ community, Pride this year was about more than just visibility — it was a victory lap for rights won, a demand for those still withheld, and a loud reminder to the world that queer people aren’t going anywhere.
Foreign aid cuts hit marginalized communities hardest, and in Nepal, it’s LGBTQ people who’ve been left scrambling for resources. But as this Pride showed, the queer spirit isn’t just surviving — it’s thriving. Marchers in Kathmandu sent a clear message: even when governments pull the plug, love, solidarity, and rainbow resistance run on their own power.