Only three third-gender people in the country have been so far issued citizenship specifying their gender, RSS reports.

Although the Supreme Court ordered the government to issue citizenship certificates on the basis of gender identity on December 21, 2007, only three persons of third gender have been issued certificates on that basis.

Speaking at an interaction organized by the Blue Diamond Society in the capital on Saturday, the participants stressed the need of removing the problem in the understanding of the bureaucracy regarding giving legal rights to the gay and lesbian relationships. President of the Blue Diamond Society and CA member, Sunil Babu Panta, complained that the government employees sought financial benefit and visit abroad while placing request for amending the related laws, adding that the third gender people were denied citizenship at the direction of the then Home Minister Krishna Bahadur Mahara.

President of the Federation of Nepali Journalists (FNJ), Shiva Gaunle, said the role of the media did not appear to be significant as regards the rights of the LGBTs as the voices of the third gender people were not taken seriously from the society to the government level and since the LGBTs also failed to put across their concerns openly without inhibitions.

Editor of the Himal Khabarpatrika news weekly, Kiran Nepal, expressed that although the society was negative regarding the issues of the LGBTs in the beginning, it is gradually coming to terms with their issues and taking their issues as common. The two-day interaction has been organized with the objective of soliciting suggestions from people associated with the media regarding the problems faced by the LGBTs and the ways of addressing their problems. nepalnews.com