On the 27th of June we had our next class with Eilisha Manandhar during Our Sunday Project. In all of our talks with Eilisha, we have talked about many important things such as racism, investments, pride, mental health and more. Today with our talk with Eilisha we talked about Pride Month, we talked about how it all started, how Pride Month is like today, what is Pride Month and how does pride and the LGBTQ+ community effect our home country Nepal. When we are having a talk about all these important subjects and how it effects us today, Eilisha really makes me and others feel comfortable to speak our opinions about certain subjects and not feel judged about. Today our class started with introducing ourselves and answering the question, “What is your favorite animal?”. I said that my favorite animal was a dog while others said chimpanzees and other animals.
We also started our class with the question, “What first started Pride Month?”. We learned that the Pride Month had protests that first started around the 1970’s. When the LGBTQ+ community were being raided by the police , they were so angry about that, so they made protests about how they were treated and how they had to be ashamed of their sexualities that made them unique from their society. There was a place where the LGBTQ+ community felt really comfortable in before it was raided by the police. Because of this, the protests began since the homosexual people decided to fight back. We then watched a video of an interview with Ellen Broidy, a person that helped organize the protests. She said that, “The protests were really eventful. People cheered from their windows, while others marched along the streets, and even some some of the police joined”.
Then we talked about what the LGBTQ+ stands for. The LGBTQ+ community stands for lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transgender, queer, and more. We also talked about how homophobia impacts us, and the community today. Eilisha that homophobia impacts us because it can still make the LGBTQ+ community scared or uncomfortable to come out to their friends, family, and other close relationships. Eilisha said that homophobia makes talking about such sensitive topics uncomfortable and awkward.
We also talked about how pride impacts Nepal and us Nepali Americans. As a group, we decided that although there is a group of Nepali citizens who are apart of LGBTQ+ and since Nepal is a developing nation the group of LGBTQ+ people are the start of the change. If the citizens apart of the LGBTQ+ can start a movement in Nepal making pride a normal thing, it will teach the younger and upcoming generations that it is ok to talk about these sensitive topics with close people and that it is also ok to be apart of that community. We also came to an agreement that if schools start to imply things such as pride and other issues Nepal will be a better nation that is welcoming to all sexualities.
The final topic we talked about was “What is holding Nepal back”? For this question as a group we decided that it was because of the fear or being rejected and not being accepted for being the way you are or simply talking about pride. We also agreed that it’s because Nepali parents and older generations in Nepal are pretty closed minded and have a strict perspective that being lesbian, gay, bisexual or anything else besides straight was not okay. This caused parents to not talk about or bring up this topic at all which taught younger generations that being a part of the LGBTQ+ is no good.
From my perspective, I think that Nepal, since it is still a rising nation, should start making these changes so that in the future everyone can feel comfortable in their societies, no matter the sexuality. I had a good time talking about this topic, and I am very thankful that Eilisha was able to do a video chat with us, and provide us more knowledge in this topic. I am also really thankful for Jeneeya Suwal that she created this Sunday Class which started as a community(now better described as a family) and built such a safe space where all of us kids and newer generations opinions are heard without being judged.