POKHARA, Nepal — Gay, lesbian, and transgender people and their supporters marched in a Nepalese town on Friday to demand recognition as a third gender in citizen certificates, to allow same-sex marriage, and to criminalize discrimination based on sexual preference.

Dressed in colorful clothes, laden with beads and other jewelry, they danced to Bollywood music played over loudspeakers as they marched for about 2 miles though the center of Pokhara, a resort town 125 miles west of the capital, Katmandu.

Sunil Babu Pant of the Blue Diamond Society, a group that supports sexual minorities in Nepal, said the rally was an opportunity for people to come out. ‘‘The rally gives us an opportunity to seek the support of the public and be more visible in the society. There are more and more people coming out in the open and this rally gives them a chance,’’ Pant said.

Pant, a former Parliament member, is campaigning for rights of sexual minorities to be included in the new constitution, which was being written by the Constitution Assembly before it expired this year. A new assembly is scheduled to be elected in November.