A Japanese lesbian couple plan to stage wedding photographs in every country where same-sex marriage is legal in a push to increase understanding of LGBT communities at home, they said on Wednesday.
Students Misato Kawasaki, 21, and Mayu Otaki, 22, hope to give other LGBT people confidence in their identity and raise awareness of issues such as the lack of equal marriage in Japan.
“Through this project, I want to cheer up a lot of people that there is nothing to be ashamed of just because you are a sexual minority,” Otaki told reporters. “It is important to speak out, but unless many people take an interest, then I do not think society will change.”
Japan’s laws on LGBT issues are relatively liberal compared with many Asian countries, with homosexual sex legal since 1880, but being openly gay remains largely taboo.
Same-sex marriage is not legal, although in some areas gay couples can get a certificate that allows them similar rights to married couples.
Kawasaki had struggled with her feelings for women, initially believing it was the “natural course” to be attracted to boys, she wrote on a fundraising page for the project.
“Even now, it is hard to come out as a lesbian to friends who don’t know our project. That is because I am scared to find out what the other person thinks,” she said. “However, once I started coming out, it got better because I no longer had to lie to myself or my friends.”
The couple, who are students at Utsunomiya University, decided to travel to all 25 countries worldwide with marriage equality in a bid to increase awareness over the lack of equal marriage.
At the end of last year, 25 nations recognized same-sex marriage, according to International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA) data, up from 24 the previous year.
Their “26 times wedding” project is to take them to countries including Argentina, Canada, South Africa, New Zealand and Iceland, and they are also to visit Taiwan for a 26th “ceremony.”
At each stop the two are to stage mock wedding photos, which are to be posted on social media, and carry out interviews with local LGBT campaigners and experts.
The couple only has about 1,000 followers on Instagram so far, but has been the subject of numerous press stories.
“At the moment, LGBTQ people are not familiar to the Japanese, so we would like different people to look at the wedding photos we take and put on Instagram, and then think about the issue,” Kawasaki said.
HOLLYWOOD IN TURMOIL: Mandy Moore, Paris Hilton and Cary Elwes lost properties to the flames, while awards events planned for this week have been delayed Fires burning in and around Los Angeles have claimed the homes of numerous celebrities, including Billy Crystal, Mandy Moore and Paris Hilton, and led to sweeping disruptions of entertainment events, while at least five people have died. Three awards ceremonies planned for this weekend have been postponed. Next week’s Oscar nominations have been delayed, while tens of thousands of city residents had been displaced and were awaiting word on whether their homes survived the flames — some of them the city’s most famous denizens. More than 1,900 structures had been destroyed and the number was expected to increase. More than 130,000 people
A group of Uyghur men who were detained in Thailand more than one decade ago said that the Thai government is preparing to deport them to China, alarming activists and family members who say the men are at risk of abuse and torture if they are sent back. Forty-three Uyghur men held in Bangkok made a public appeal to halt what they called an imminent threat of deportation. “We could be imprisoned and we might even lose our lives,” the letter said. “We urgently appeal to all international organizations and countries concerned with human rights to intervene immediately to save us from
Some things might go without saying, but just in case... Belgium’s food agency issued a public health warning as the festive season wrapped up on Tuesday: Do not eat your Christmas tree. The unusual message came after the city of Ghent, an environmentalist stronghold in the country’s East Flanders region, raised eyebrows by posting tips for recycling the conifers on the dinner table. Pointing with enthusiasm to examples from Scandinavia, the town Web site suggested needles could be stripped, blanched and dried — for use in making flavored butter, for instance. Asked what they thought of the idea, the reply
US Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen on Monday met virtually with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng (何立峰) and raised concerns about “malicious cyber activity” carried out by Chinese state-sponsored actors, the US Department of the Treasury said in a statement. The department last month reported that an unspecified number of its computers had been compromised by Chinese hackers in what it called a “major incident” following a breach at contractor BeyondTrust, which provides cybersecurity services. US Congressional aides said no date had been set yet for a requested briefing on the breach, the latest in a serious of cyberattacks
RSS