Kathmandu, June 17 -- As transgender mountaineer Nilam Paudel stood atop Mount Everest, she fought back tears.

"I was crying on Everest," Paudel recalled at a Pride Month celebration and national dialogue event in Kathmandu on Monday. "I was thinking about my community, those who I had lost to suicide."

Yet before making history as the first trans woman to summit Everest, Paudel encountered countless obstacles at home, she said. While applying for trekking and climbing permits from the Department of Tourism, officials repeatedly demanded additional documents and initially refused her applications because she was transgender.

Her experience reflects what LGBTQI+ activists say is a persistent contradiction in Nepal. While the country is ...