South Asia’s First Gay Temple wedding

Courtney Mitchell, a 41-year-old college professor, and Sarah Welton, a 48-year-old lawyer, both from Denver, Colorado, tied the knot at a temple in the outskirts of capital Kathmandu.

"The wedding was wonderful. We are very happy," said Ms. Mitchell, who donned the traditional Nepali bridegroom attire of daura suruwal and topi--long trousers, a shirt and a cap. Ms. Welton was resplendent in a red sari and traditional Nepali jewelries and adornments, according to the Nepali gay rights activist who helped organize the wedding.

Mitchell said that though their marriage had been sanctified before the gods, it has yet to gain legal standing.

Even though Nepal is wracked by multiple-hour power cuts, a fuel crisis and political limbo over the drafting of a new Constitution, the country has become steadily more progressive socially since it ousted its 240-year-old Hindu monarchy in 2008, persuaded Maoist rebels to put down arms and join electoral politics, and became a republic.

But, still, a same-sex wedding in a temple is an unprecedented sign of acceptance.

Sunil Babu Pant, a gay legislator from a Communist party in Nepal's 601-member Constituent Assembly, which is also playing the role of Parliament for the moment, said Monday's wedding was the second international same-sex wedding in Nepal but the first to be held in public.

In 2010, Mr. Pant helped a British man and his Indian partner enter into wedlock. He says Nepal is emerging as a favorite wedding celebration and honeymoon destination for the LGBT--lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender--community.

Though still staunchly conservative, India, Nepal's largest neighbor after China, has also been making slow strides in recognizing gay and lesbian rights.

Pant said Nepal's government has set up a committee to look into legalizing same-sex marriage in Nepal and the committee is due to submit its recommendations soon.

Pant, who also runs Blue Diamond Society, a Kathmandu-based LGBT rights group, and Pink Mountain Travels & Tours, which caters to the LGBT community, said more than 70 people attended Monday's wedding, which got widespread national and international coverage.

The newlyweds said they plan to spend a week in Nepal on a "fun trekking program," helping street children in Kathmandu, and working with oppressed caste groups before they head back to the U.S. Ms. Mitchell, who worked in Nepal in the late 1990s and early 2000s, says the couple plan to return to Nepal sometime in the future with their adopted daughter to continue their work in Nepal's development sector.