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Gay Pride News: Tokyo Gay Pride judged a success as four thousand people take to the streets over the weekend.
By: Nigel Robinson
Shinjuku district has 250 gay bars
Shinjuku district has 250 gay bars
Tokyo hosts first Gay Pride in three years
The seventh Gay Pride parade, which took place in the city’s Shinjuku district, home to 250 gay bars, was the first one in three years to be held in the Japanese capital.
In the previous two years organisers had experienced difficulties in attracting volunteers as homosexuality is still regarded as taboo in Japan’s traditional society.
Coming out at home or in the workplace in Japan is almost impossible and many gay Japanese marry people of the opposite sex to hide their homosexuality.
Hideki Sunagawa, the organiser of the parade, told Reuter’s news agency that the parade was a rare opportunity for people to be themselves.
“We are desperate to move mainstream to show people that being gay is normal,” Sunagawa told the news agency.
Homosexuality is legal in Japan but there are no laws protecting people in the workplace from discrimination on account of their sexual orientation.
