Japan has recently seen typically liberal countries make modest progress toward embracing sexual diversity.
Despite growing support for LGBTQ-friendly rules among younger people, according to surveys, the Liberal Democratic Party, which currently holds power, has been hesitant to move forward with measures.
Additionally, activists have recently issued a warning about an upsurge in cruel online rhetoric that specifically targets transgender women. This rhetoric has been fueled in part by the controversial debate over the watered-down anti-discrimination legislation that was passed this year.
” YET IN PAIN!”
A transsexual Chinese woman who wants to get recognized as a woman without surgery is at the core of Wednesday’s case.
She referred to sterilization as a” burial human rights violation and illegal” requirement.
Both of her previous requests to a family court and later to an upper court were denied.
The Supreme Court has weighed in on the sterilization requirement’s constitutionality twice, ruling that it is” democratic as of now” in 2019.
Judges had argued that the condition was intended to avoid” confusion” brought on by transgender people having kids after changing their legal sex.
The top court decision on Wednesday has been eagerly anticipated by the trans community in Japan, including 34-year-old Tomoya Asanuma.
Asanuma had his uterus and ovaries removed at the age of 23 so that he could legally switch genders and wed his feminine fiancée.
According to Asanuma,” making operation a requirement for changing legal sex is very risky for trans people in all respects— physically, emotionally, and economically.”
” I continue to be in anguish. It really irritates me to believe that if I had been able to change my female without having operation, I haven’t been suffering as much as I am right now.