Same-sex couples in Japan
are awaiting the results of a debate in a Tokyo local assembly that may give
them what their Western counterparts have long had: a chance to step out of the
shadows. In japan things are little different than here. All though there are
hate crimes still being done here to our LBGT community still it’s not to the
extent that things are done to our LBGT community in other places. The LBGT community
here can still walk outside their homes and be able to hold hands, have a
family and now get married and have it be recognized as a legal marriage. It
took a while for them to get there, but they are a lot further along than a lot
of other LBGT communities. The proposal by Tokyo's Shibuya ward to recognize
same-sex partnerships from April may seem insignificant compared with the
United States, where gay marriage is legal in all but 13 states. But it is the
first such move in Japan, where the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender
(LGBT) community is all but invisible. "It's as if the door has opened up
a little. It may be much less than we expected, but the first bit is really
hard," said Hitoshi Ohashi, who runs a gallery out of the Tokyo apartment
he shares with his partner, author Bob Tobin. An example of the communities is different
there is that in Japan, legally binding civil unions remain a distant dream for
the LGBT community, with same-sex partners often unable to rent apartments.
Being openly gay is taboo, and many sport fake wedding rings or enter marriages
of convenience.
There is some division on
the proposal in the LBGT community. Some note that the statute, which has few
legal teeth, only guarantees rights for couples without extending the same to
individuals, and that it may have been hurriedly put together to burnish
Tokyo's image before it hosts the 2020 Summer Olympics.
11:20 am, March 6, 2015
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/03/03/us-japan-samesex-idUSKBN0LZ0AS20150303
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