Surveying Nepal's Third Gender

Abstract

This article discusses research undertaken in the wake of Nepal's 2011 federal census, the world's first to include a gender category in addition to male and female. It presents the methodology and initial findings of a new survey of 1,178 sexual and gender minorities in Nepal conducted to determine inclusive and locally relevant methodologies for demographic information gathering. Nepal has legally recognized a third gender since 2007 and in 2011 added that category to the census. However, due to confusion and discrimination among census enumerators and a data entry system that only allowed for two genders, those who identified as third gender were not accurately measured. Beyond those limitations, the term third gender is contested, and by itself it may not fully represent the many sexual and gender minorities in Nepal, including people who are gender nonconforming. This article discusses the development of new survey data measuring the identity, behavioral, and attraction dimensions of gender and sexuality across different terms that are in use in Nepal. Initial findings show that seven distinct groups of respondents can be described, and this article discusses how to expand the concepts and considerations for inclusive data collection in Nepal.

Challenged Expectations: Mere Exposure Effects on Attitudes About Transgender People and Rights

“…Some transgender people may be perceived as gender conforming (i.e., physical features appear congruent with gender expression) while others as nonconforming (i.e., physical features appear incongruent with gender expression). While all transgender people may be more likely to experience discrimination compared to the general population, discrimination is highest for those who are perceived as gender nonconforming (Connell, ; Dozier, ; Grant et al, ; Knight, Flores, & Nezhad, ; Miller & Grollman, ).…”

Constructing a queer population? Asking about sexual orientation in Scotland’s 2022 census

“…Results from Ipsos MORI and ScotCen's research informed NRS's decision to propose changing the sex question in Scotland's census so that it presented three response options: female, male and other, with a write-in box. The introduction of a non-binary sex question to the census would follow the lead of other countries, such as Nepal (Knight, Flores, & Nezhad, 2015), and enable people who neither identify exclusively as male nor female to accurately record themselves in the national count.…”

Masters of hybridity: how activists reconstructed Nepali society

“…In brief, what occurred was that, in the new politically and culturally revolutionary times of the 2000s, and particularly after the fall of the monarchy in 2006, all non‐heteronormative people were recognized as an omnibus new minority, on the paradigm of the new ethnic macro‐categories, and this new category was named ‘third gender’. For Nepalis, the paradigm case of ‘third gender’ is the flamboyant male‐to‐female cross‐dressing transgender woman, building on the long‐standing South Asian hijra stereotype (Knight : 131‐2); but, within the ‘third gender’ macro‐category, there were many local terms referring to different types of sexual preference (Knight, Flores & Nezhad : 108‐9; S. Tamang : 229) . Politically aware Nepalis understood very well that this was a heterogeneous category mobilized in order to bring pressure on, and claim resources from, the state, even though many people found the new term confusing and even inappropriate (Knight : 152‐3).…”

“…On the emergence of the ‘third gender’ category in Nepal and the highly diverse identities that underlie it, see Bochanek & Knight (); Knight (); Knight et al . (); Pigg (); Tadié (); and S. Tamang (). On the emergence of ‘transgender’ in New York, see Valentine (); and on the similarities and differences between transracial and transgender identities in the United States, see Brubaker ().…”