“I respect you and believe you deserve to hear this directly from me,” he said, reading from a letter he had prepared.
“For years, I struggled to accept a part of myself.
But now, after all I have been through, I finally have the courage to open up to you about something.
I am a gay man.”Such an announcement is extremely unusual in conservative Japan, the only G7 country that has not legalized same-sex unions.
Earlier this summer, the Japanese Parliament passed an L.G.B.T.Q rights bill but it had been watered down by the political right, stating that there “should be no unfair discrimination” against gay and transgender people.
Persons:
“, Shinjiro, ”
Locations:
Tokyo, Japan