Kathmandu: UK-based Nepali blogger and activist Lex Limbu has released a short video marking the beginning of Pride Month. Pride month (or Gaurav mahina in Nepali) is dedicated to celebrating the LGBTIQ+ communities all around the world.
The short video, simply titled Gaurav, starring Limbu and Abiskar Rai celebrates the love between two gay men. The music video is shot mostly in an enclosed space showing love and intimacy between the lovers.
This sense of intimacy is complemented well by Ramuna Pun’s lyrical cinematography and Susant Bista’s vocals. The video also features a special appearance from Limbu’s own parents. “Through this short video, I wanted to share how beautiful it can be when you take pride in who you are,” Limbu said, “Pride month is a wonderful way to refocus attention on the LGBTIQ+ community and our journey so far.”
Pride Month is celebrated every year in the month of June globally in honor of the Stonewall Uprising, which was a spontaneous series of protests orchestrated by the gay community against police violence in New York in 1969. Limbu had shared about his sexual orientation through a YouTube video in 2018.
Director Pun said that when Limbu, who also wrote the story, approached her with ‘Gaurav’, she was “instantly drawn to the simplicity of the story”.
“The weight it carries on a broader context is, of course, heavy but the fluidity of emotions exchanged between all four characters is raw, real, reassuring and that simplifies everything,” Pun said, “I perceived and filmed the story how it was, with love. I wish for everyone to embrace the story in a similar way.”
Limbu’s co-star Abiskar Rai notes that “even though the LGBTIQ+ rights movement is gaining momentum in Nepal, it still remains a very sensitive subject”.
Pride Month is celebrated every year in the month of June globally in honor of the Stonewall Uprising, which was a spontaneous series of protests orchestrated by the gay community against police violence in New York in 1969.
“By doing the video and putting it out in this way will hopefully change people’s perspectives slowly and make it more comfortable for people out there,” Raid said,“ Pride represents acceptance of who you are to yourself first and something that makes you feel like you are not the only one. A sign of unity, you can say.”
In recent years, Pride month is marked through Nepal Pride Parade (Nepal Gaurav Yatra) in Kathmandu. Since 2020, the Pride parade (Gaurav Yatra) has been held virtually.
Limbu’s video starts with a shot of a yellow rose, which is said to symbolize friendship, joy, and caring, and ends with an extended hand, perhaps a request to all to join in the pride movement and be an ally.
Everybody deserves respect, love, and dignity of life irrespective of one’s sexual orientation. Love, as the video’s endnote, says, “deserves to come home.”
“Pride to me is simply a notion of being who you are and loving who you want,” director Pun says, “Nothing more and nothing else.”
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