Sunil Babu Pant is the founder of the Blue Diamond Society, a Nepalese LGBTIQ organization. He is also the first openly gay member of the Nepalese Parliament who served from 2008-2012.

Since my childhood, I had a question: Why are certain sections of people respected and certain sections of people marginalized based on caste, gender, profession, and health condition and so on? Priests and priestly castes people, especially men, were (still are) highly revered, doctors, teachers were/are well respected. Politicians used to be highly respected, not so much these days. On the other hand, people with mental-disability were chased away by children when they walked into the village. People who belonged to leather-worker caste were looked down upon. Feminine men were ridiculed. So on and so forth.

So why do we get marginalized?

Anyone considered to be less-normal from the ‘norm’ is discriminated, is marginalized.

Marginalization is defined as ‘Treatment of a person, group, or concept as insignificant or peripheral’. Based on this definition the modern day world treats marginalization as an ‘ugly’ scar of humanity which otherwise would have been just and equal. Hence, the entire national and international humanitarian, development, human rights, social justice, legal and constitutional frameworks try to address the injustices and inequality by addressing the problems of marginalization. But is it the case that marginalization has always been perceived bad and is it always a bad thing to have? Let’s explore how the eastern cultures (Buddhism, Jainism and Hinduism) look at marginalization. Read more via Gaylaxy Magazine