2007 Francisco Gay Pride San
|
Transsexual politician demands louder Japanese gay pride
Japans gay community must make itself known in the country, the countrys only transsexual politician announced last week.
Aya Kamikawa addressed around 4,000 people at last weekends Tokyo Gay Pride, proclaiming, If we do not raise our voices, nobody will know of our existence.
If we do not make other people think of us, nothing will change. Let's raise our voices together to make a better future.
Kanako Otsuji , Japan 's first openly lesbian politician said: I was so encouraged by all of the smiles on everyone's faces. I think that society begins to change when so many people can share in an experience of self-affirmation.
The parade toured around the fashionable Harajuku area-the same place Gwen Stefani sang about in Harajuku Girls.
GENDER IS OVER-RATED
At a recent family affair, my philistine cousin was complaining about the gay sex shops in the West Village. He recently moved to New York and finds the openly gay culture "offensive" and "abrasive." Feeling the need to defend the gay community (and being bisexual myself), I said, "Intolerance is rooted in fear. Maybe you’re afraid that one day you’ll be attracted to a guy." His response: "If the guy had breasts and didn’t have a penis and looked like a woman, then maybe I would." He could have been describing a transsexual. "You see how gender is irrelevant?" I said. Ignoring my point, he reiterated his heterosexual pride: "I just want everyone to be like me. Fuck you." Of course I wanted to slap him, but I found enlightenment in his insulting comments. My cousin is an extreme example of the human tendency to perceive gender as a fixed state of being, attached to expected qualities and behaviors.
|
