The 37-year-old was confirmed by Nepal's Election Commission as a proportional-representation MP from the centrist Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP), which won a parliamentary majority last week.

"I am very excited but also feel the responsibility on my shoulders," Shrestha, an LGBTQ rights advocate, told AFP.

"Our constitution has provisions for our community but they have not translated to laws and policies. Our community expects me to raise our issues (in parliament)."

From Kailash to Bhumika: a childhood shaped by exclusion

Shrestha was born as Kailash Shrestha, assigned male at birth, in a middle-class family in Kathmandu. Despite this, she recalls feeling like a girl while growing up, gravitating towards dolls, make-up and forms of expression discouraged for boys.

Her mother accepted these early expressions. Outside the home, however, life turned difficult.

By the age of eleven, she faced bullying at school over her mannerisms, voice and walk. Classmates hurled slurs, subjecting her to repeated harassment. The situation worsened after she moved from a private school to a government institution, where rigid gender divisions made daily routines harder.

She could not safely use boys' toilets and was barred from girls' facilities. To cope, she avoided drinking water during school hours - something she later linked to health complications.

These years were marked by isolation and distress. The loss of her father and pressure from teachers compounded her struggles, eventually forcing her to leave school before completing secondary education.

Finding identity, activism and a political platform

Relief came after she left that environment, allowing her to express herself more freely. A decisive shift followed when she connected with activists from the Blue Diamond Society (BDS), including Pinky Gurung.

Through this association, she found a sense of belonging and clarity about her identity. It was during this phase that she adopted the name Bhumika and stepped into organised advocacy.

Her activism contributed to a landmark 2007 Supreme Court ruling that recognised a "third gender" category in citizenship documents. She later navigated the system herself - first registering under that category and, in 2021, updating her citizenship to reflect her identity as female.

For years, she has worked with institutions, pushing for dignity and rights for transgender people, while also running awareness programmes in schools aimed at preventing the trauma she experienced.

Election win, community response and broader context

Shrestha will sit in the 275-member House of Representatives elected on March 5 - the first election since anti-corruption protests toppled the government in September last year.

The RSP, led by rapper-turned-politician Balendra Shah, won 125 of 165 directly elected seats and secured 57 more through proportional representation, leaving it two short of a two-thirds majority.

Umisha Pandey, president of BDS, described the moment as "historic".

"Our pains, our sufferings, our feeling, our stories and our every problem is only understood by us, not by others," Pandey said.

Supporters gathered at the BDS office in Kathmandu to congratulate Shrestha, offering scarves, flowers and gifts, including a pen symbolising the legislative role she will now take on.

Nepal has some of South Asia's most progressive LGBTQ laws. Discrimination based on gender or sexual orientation was outlawed in 2007. A third-gender category was introduced in citizenship documents in 2013, followed by passports with an "others" category in 2015.

In 2023, an interim Supreme Court order allowed same-sex and transgender couples to register their marriage.

Yet representation has been limited. No one from the community has held public office since 2008, when an openly gay man was nominated under the proportional representation system.

More than 900,000 people in Nepal identify as sexual minorities, according to BDS - many now looking to Shrestha to carry their voice into parliament.