Japan schools a ‘hateful’ place for LGBT students, says rights group
Discrimination is not just an issue in Japan, the country lags behind the United States and many other Western nations in terms of gay rights and same-sex marriage
Japanese schools are filled with “hateful” comments about gay and transgender people, including remarks by teachers that can aggravate bullying and push some students into depression, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a report Friday.
The study was based on interviews with dozens of LGBT students at schools across the country, and also teachers, who the rights group said were often a key part of the problem.
“Hateful anti-LGBT rhetoric is nearly ubiquitous in Japanese schools, driving LGBT [lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender] students into silence, self-loathing, and in some cases, self-harm,” the group said.
Nearly every interviewee “said that they heard anti-LGBT rhetoric in school, including LGBT people called ‘disgusting’, the use of slur words such as ‘homo’, and declarations that ‘these creatures should never have been born’”.
While HRW noted that such discrimination is not just an issue in Japan, the country does lag behind the United States and many other Western nations in terms of gay rights and same-sex marriage.
Historically, Japan has been broadly tolerant of homosexuality, with documented cases of samurai warriors during feudal times having male lovers, while same-sex relationships have been depicted in traditional art, such as ukiyoe, or wood block prints.