At the end of November, Nepal’s government recognized a marriage between Nepalis of the same legal gender for the first time. But while the jubilant celebration undoubtedly deserves attention, various court cases and the country’s inconsistent bureaucracy make it virtually impossible for most queer couples to marry. Maya Gurung and Surendra Pandey’s case first made headlines following an interim order issued by Nepal’s supreme court in June. Gurung is a transgender woman who is legally recognised as male and Pandey is a cisgender man. The interim order instructed the government to create a separate register for marriages between people of the same sex as well as third gender people, who have been recognised in principle based on self-identification for over a decade.