since some people said they’d be interested in hearing about my experience at a “lesbian night” event at a local gay bar this past weekend…. here’s a tl;dr word vomit post about the night that can pretty much be summarized as: i had a good time, but awkwardness was awkward and culture shock was shocking, as always in Japanese LGBT spaces.
content warning: pathologization / medicalization of being trans; non-binary erasure; death mention (below) while i don’t agree with everything in this article (from how things are presented or worded to more factual things), this article is still representative of the sad truth that i’m continually navigating as a non-binary person in Japan. from the way that trans people themselves here actively embrace and rally behind Gender Identity Disorder (GID) not only as a medical condition but as an identity to how pathologized & medicalized literally everything surrounding being trans is here and how that can make things especially difficult for non-binary / Xジェンダー people, even when interacting with people in the trans community which is full of transmedicalism. the blatant non-binary erasure (dare i say enbyphobia) demonstrated by the head of the largest trans / GID organization in this country illustrates that perfectly in this article. “I reject the notion of…
a former coworker (W) and i were in Tokyo today at Sensoji, a major tourist trap in Asakusa that’s in every foreign EVERY guidebook ever. a place that i generally avoid except i was playing tour guide for the day. i was off somewhere snapchatting, as i do, and when i came back to where W was there was a random middle-aged Japanese man excitedly talking to him about where he was from (Colorodo). i’m standing there for a minute or two half listening to their convo while taking random photos, as i also do, when the man realizes that i’m with the guy he’s trying to chat up in broken English. he decides to do the same with me, except… man: ooh, where are you from? me: Las Vegas. man: no, where?? me: Las Vegas…? America…? *confused as people generally know Las Vegas* man: no no, where are you from long…
…sigh. you know, i really want to be happy about these LGBTQIA 4-koma comics that Chii is doing to try and help raise awareness for lesser known genders and sexualities, but gah. i just can’t. because i suck. the linked comic that went up a couple days ago about Xジェンダー / non-binary is the last one i’m going to whinge over, i swear. for now. but first, an English translation of the comic to give context to my whinging. What’s “X-gender”? Xジェンダー (X-gender) people who, without deciding between “male” or “female”, take the stance or identity of being neither gender. referred to as “MtX” if designated “male” at birth and “FtX” if designated “female” at birth, however also referred to simply as “X” when not wanting to refer to one’s designated gender at birth. there are many definitions, but it goes something like this. red and white*: i want to be between male and female.…
once again i randomly came across another one of Chii’s 4-koma comic strips about asexuality on Twitter and my reaction to seeing it has me feeling guilty and torn. ;( for those who don’t speak Japanese, the comic introduces the term “ace” (slang for “asexual”) to Japanese readers and then explains how it’s connected to aces in playing cards. it also introduces readers to the concept / association that’s been floating around English-speaking ace communities of each suite being associated with specific orientations / identities. in the comic, it’s explained as: ace of hearts: romantic asexuals (known as “nonsexuals” in Japan) ace of spades: aromantic asexuals (known as “asexuals” in Japan) ace of diamonds: demisexuals and demiromantic asexuals ace of clubs: gray asexuals and grayromantic asexuals before i start ranting going on and on about ‘nothing’, i want to point out that i’m happy that “ace” is being introduced here in Japanese. no conflicting feelings there.…
…..in which i Snapchat rant about how uncomfortable / exasperating it is as a black person reading books etc with black characters in it to my young Japanese students. Tumblr forced me to upload the video externally because of the file size, so i put it on the QAC YouTube channel unlisted, but i don’t care if anyone shares it elsewhere. also, i swear me posting random, annoying Snapchat rants on here or on YouTube isn’t going to become a thing. i just have to share this last one. ;(
…in which i mini-rant about one of my misogynistic adult students.
translation: Accepting participants for the Ibaraki Lesbian Outdoor Meetup ★ [ …… ] Women loving women, FtMs, non-binary people & those questioning, let’s relax and chat together! However, this time only those who are registered as single and female on their family register are allowed, sorry. (Trying to gradually be a little more lax, but… ?) ….and THIS is why i almost always end up having to go all the way to Tokyo to participate in stuff, because the most (seemingly) active part of the LGBT community here (the lesbian community) is so goddamn transphobic. for the last two meetups, the OP was like “no trans women, sorry!” and that was the end of it. this time it doesn’t even mention trans women at all, only providing enough wiggle room for trans men and non-binary people provided they have “F” on their family register… am i or people like me supposed to…
…meanwhile, i went to an Xジェンダーオフ会 / non-binary meetup in Tokyo and snapped parts of my day on Snapchat. thought it might be interesting to some.
…so this has been going around on Japanese Twitter. about to pass out, but wanted to put a link to this here with a little blurb reasonably-contained-imho rant for my own future reference because this is personally relevant to me.
