To Be young and lesbian in Japan By Matthew A. Thorn A student of mine, a young Japanese woman, recently came out to me. And by "came out," I mean she told me she was a lesbian. To be more precise, she came to realize that she was a lesbian, and not a bisexual, as she had been telling herself. Later I took her with me to a very small convention in Tokyo where more than half of the participants were lesbians. She was incredibly excited to meet others like herself.
But back in Kyoto, she is lonely and isolated. There is one very small group at our university for gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgendered students, but she's not even sure if the women in the group are lesbians, bisexuals or just heterosexual women who like the idea of being "queer." There are just two lesbian bars in Kyoto, both run by the same people, so if you don't like the atmosphere or clientele, you're out of luck. (There was a third bar, but it seems to have gone out of business, as so many lesbian bars do in Japan.)
Just finding other lesbians is a struggle, but even if you do, and you are lucky enough to meet someone you can love, you still have to deal with the reality of living in a heterosexist society. My student has good friends at school, and they now know she is a lesbian, but they don't want to hear about it or talk about it. They would prefer that she keep that aspect of her life hidden from their sight. And while she has told her sister, it will probably be difficult for her to tell her parents. Many lesbian, gay and transgendered Japanese are told by family and friends that they are just going through a phase, or that they are sick and need psychiatric help. And in the future, she can expect to be discriminated against in the workplace if she does not hide her identity.
Japanese children are taught in school to not discriminate against people of certain social backgrounds, Koreans or other foreigners living in Japan, the disabled or the elderly. But they are not taught to respect lesbians, gays or the transgendered. The mass media portray gay men and the transgendered as perverted clowns. Lesbians are portrayed as pitiful psychopaths, or as mannequins performing for the pleasure of heterosexual men. Television, comics and video games teach children that people whose sexual or gender identity is different from the mainstream are freaks to be laughed at.
Current scientific evidence indicates that sexual orientation is inborn. It is not a choice, nor is it shaped by environment. And though there is little reliable data available, most experts believe that between two and five percent of all humans are born homosexual. That means there is probably at least one homosexual in your workplace or classroom. But he or she is probably hiding that fact from everyone. When will these people free to come out of the closet? When will Japanese society begin to take seriously the basic civil rights of people whose only "problem" is that they fall in love with people of the same sex? When will my student be able to simply be herself, and be accepted by others?
Q1. Do or did you have a homosexual friend? How do or did you feel about him or her? If not, what image do you have about the homosexuals?
Q2. Do you think discrimination against them exists in Japan? If so, what kind of discrimination does?
同性愛者への差別は日本にあると思いますか?そうであるなら、どんな差別ですか?
Q3. Marriage between a man and a man or a woman and a woman should be admitted? Why or why not?
男同士、あるいは女同士の結婚は認められるべきだと思いますか?なぜですか?
Q4. Do you think children should be taught in school not to discriminate against homosexuals?
子供は学校で、同性愛者を差別しないよう教えられるべきだと思いますか?
Q5. If your (future) child is homosexual, what advice would you give to him or her?
もしあなたの(将来の)子どもが同性愛者だとすれば、彼あるいは彼女にどう助言しますか?
came outカミングアウトした To be more preciseもっと正確に言えばcame to realize that 〜〜だと悟ったbisexual両性愛者convention集会participants参加者lonely and isolated孤独で浮いていたgays男の同性愛者transgendered性同一性障害のheterosexual異性愛のqueer同性愛者run by 〜〜が経営する atmosphere雰囲気clientele客層 out of luck運がないhave gone out of business店をたたんでしまったstruggle大変な努力のいることkeep 〜 hidden from their sight〜を見えないところに隠しておく aspect側面(are) going through a phaseそういう一時期を体験しているだけだpsychiatric精神科のbe discriminated against差別されるidentity自分の本当の姿 the disabled障害を持つ人々the elderly高齢者portray 〜 as〜をとして描くperverted変質的なclowns道化師pitiful哀れむべきpsychopaths精神病質者performing for 〜 〜のために演技をするsexual or gender identity性的指向、または性別についての自己認識freaks変人scientific evidence科学的根拠indicates示すsexual orientation 性的指向inborn生まれつきのcome out of the closet隠していたことを公然と認めるcivil rights人権