Date: Sat, 6 Jul 1996 11:26:54 -0400 From: DOUGKIMMEL@aol.com Subject: Fwd: The Courtcase News Update July 3,1996 Here is the latest news of the Tokyo Gay/Lesbian discrimination court case. Note they would appreciate letters from the international community. I am personally familiar with this case and the organization and think this summary is an excellent statement. Doug Kimmel --------------------- Forwarded message: From: occur@kt.rim.or.jp (Japan Association for the Lesbian & Gay Movement) Date: 96-07-04 23:27:29 EDT ------------------------------------ The Courtcase News Update July 3, 1996 ------------------------------------ Japan Association for the Lesbian and Gay Movement(OCCUR) #201 4-43-4 Honcho Nakano-ku, Tokyo 164 Japan Phone: +81-3-3383-5556 Fax: +81-3-3229-7880 E-mail: occur@kt.rim.or.jp ----------------------- "We won't stay there if there are homosexuals around!" The City of Tokyo Passes Judgment on Homosexuality The twelfth hearing in the second round of the "Fuchu Seinen no Ie" Courtcase, Japan's first gay rights litigation, took place on May 16 at Tokyo's High Court. The case was originally brought by the Japan Association for the Lesbian and Gay Movement (OCCUR) in 1991 after the Tokyo Board of Education ruled that homosexuals would no longer be allowed to use the City's youth hostels. This ruling followed in the wake of an incident in 1990 when OCCUR stayed overnight in a hostel in a Tokyo suburb called Fuchu. After OCCUR members came out to the other groups they were harassed throughout the night. The City cited the "disorder" that resulted from their presence in the hostel to justify refusing them, or any other out homosexuals, further access to the facilities. In the court case that ensued the City has argued that homosexuals can be excluded on the basis of an extrapolation from the so-called "separate sexes, separate rooms rule." This argument allows them to deny their own homophobia by claiming that the problem is not homosexuality as such but the fact that homosexuals are attracted to members of the same sex. Thus allowing homosexuals to stay in the facility at all would be tantamount to allowing males and females to stay in the same room. But at the May hearing the City of Tokyo submitted a further piece of evidence to support its policy barring homosexuals from city-run youth hostels. In this piece of evidence the latent homophobia in the City's policies is clearly expressed. The new piece of evidence was submitted to the court several days before the hearing. It was a court brief written by Shigeo Ono, Director of the Japanese National Council of Youth Organizations. In the brief Ono began by stating that he had "not conducted any specialized research on the topic of homosexuality." But nonetheless he went on to argue that "It would be very difficult for mainstream youth groups to use a facility that was also being used by homosexuals." He backed up this assertion by claiming that having homosexuals around would introduce a sexual tension into the atmosphere and distract the other youth from carrying out the activities for which the facility is designed. He also argued that parents would be concerned about the possibility of "disorder" if homosexuals were allowed to use the same bathing facilities as other youth groups. Tokyo's strategy in submitting this brief seems to have been to suggest that parents and youth group leaders suffer from an vague anxiety about homosexuality and that even if that anxiety has no basis in fact it is sufficient to justify the exclusion of homosexuals from the City's youth hostels. OCCUR spent several days formulating a response to this latest piece of evidence and submitted a written argument at the May hearing. On July 4, testimony was heard from an OCCUR witness in the largest courtroom at the High Court. More than one hundred people were in attendance as Akitoshi Yanagihashi, OCCUR member and one of the official plaintiffs in the case, testified that OCCUR had used many other public youth hostels in other prefectures since the 1990 incident with no mishaps. He also gave a moving account of the impact of Tokyo's homophobic policies on himself and the other members of the Japanese gay community. The testimony lasted just over an hour. Tokyo's attorneys will cross examine Yanagihashi at the next hearing scheduled for early September. Throughout this court case OCCUR has benefited from the generous support of the international gay community. Letters of protest to the City of Tokyo are an extremely effective means of influencing the court's decision. OCCUR would be very grateful for further letters from ILGA members or related organizations stressing the following points. 1. It is extremely regrettable that the City of Tokyo continues to refuse homosexuals access to its Metropolitan Houses for Youth (Seinen no ie) despite the District Court's 1994 ruling that such discrimination is unlawful. (The City has appealed this ruling). 2. Tokyo's policy is in clear opposition to the world-wide trend of recognizing the human rights of homosexuals. The City of Tokyo has claimed that it is merely applying the "separate sexes, separate rooms rule" to homosexuals. But this application results in the de-facto barring of homosexuals from the facility all together. As such, this is clearly an instance of anti-gay discrimination. 3. The City argues that other youth and their parents will be "anxious" if homosexuals are allowed to stay in the same facility, but this anxiety has no basis in fact. If such anxiety does in fact exist it is the responsibility of the authorities not simply to exclude homosexuals but to take steps to educate the other guests and their parents by providing accurate, unbiased information about homosexuality. The problem is not the presence of the homosexuals it is the homophobia of the other guests. 4. The City of Tokyo must withdraw its appeal immediately and abandon its discriminatory policies toward homosexuals. Only in this way can it begin to function as an administration that takes the rights of all its citizens seriously, including those of homosexuals. 5. (This point should be made in letters to the City of Tokyo) Restoring the rights of homosexuals to use these public facilities would be an important means of realizing Tokyo Prefectural Governor AOSHIMA Yukio's stated commitment to "Government for the People" (Shimin'ha). For the City government it would be an important step towards regaining the confidence of the citizens of Tokyo. Send letters to: Mr. AOSHIMA Yukio Governor of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Tokyo Metropolitan Government Nishi-shinjuku 2-8-1, Shinjuku-ku Tokyo 160 JAPAN Mr. ISHIKAWA Tadao The Chairman of the Tokyo Board of Education Tokyo Metropolitan Government Nishi-shinjuku 2-8-1, Shinjuku Tokyo 160 Japan Please send copies of all letters, as well as comments or inquiries to: Japan Association for the Lesbian and Gay Movement (OCCUR) #201, 4-43-4, Honcho, Nakano-ku Tokyo 164 JAPAN FAX: 81-3-3-3229-7880 email: occur@kt.rim.or.jp Thank you very much.