Job Discussion Forums

[Brooks]

I remember hearing about a big gay dance party/drag show in Osaka a couple of years ago. It was organized by a Canadian and it was a total success. About 250 people showed up.

[candy_girl]

Thanks again for the interesting responses, everyone. Brooks,it soundsgreat that even foreigners can get involved and start events (probably under the right circumstances). Hivans, its interesting to know that gay and lesbian life is still possible even in small towns/rural areas. I'd imagine people wouldn't be as out there, but it seems that at least people are able to live their lives peacefully.


candy_girl

[ObaGol]

Hey, I just wanted to let you know about some of my experiences when I was in Japan as a student.

A friend and I went to Japan as students. My friend went to Ibaraki and I went to Sapporo. I am straight, but my friend is gay. And the city where we come from in Canada is ver gay friendly. So it is not unusual to see gay women kissing on the street, not so much guys though. Anyways, when my friend arrived at his homestay, he came out and told his homestay that he was gay. Since he told them, his homestay started to alienate him from family activities and that kind of stuff. Eventually he had to go to a new homestay. Now ofcourse his new homestay knew he was gay, but the host sister did not. When the host sister did find out he was gay, she told her friends at school, then word got around that he was gay, and students started to ignore him, and he ended up leaving Japan early with a bitter experience.

As for me, sometimes people would ask me if I was gay, which I wasn't but it did seem kind of wierd. But it is really strange to some japanese people are gay. But my girlfriend for instance has a friend who is gay, so she is not bothered.

So, remember that most of these people that were gay bashers were teenagers, and some adults. But I still think the attitude is changing but there are still those Japanese that are not so keen about the idea.