Date: Thu, 31 Mar 1994 09:05:00 EDT Reply-To: Song Weaver Subject: Major Court Victory for Japanese Gays AP 03/30 10:08 EST TOKYO (AP) -- In a landmark ruling for homosexuals' rights in Japan, a court told authorities Wednesday they were wrong to bar a gay group from using a public lodge and must pay them $2,600 in compensation. The Tokyo metropolitan government had rejected an application by the Association for the Lesbian and Gay Movement, known as OCCUR, to stay overnight at the lodge. It said other guests would be disturbed because they would assume members of the gay group were having sex. But Tokyo District Court Judge Toshiaki Harada ruled the rejection was discriminatory because authorities had no basis for their claim that the group would engage in sexual activities. "I think the ruling was only appropriate," said Masanori Kanda, one of the plaintiffs. "We should not be discriminated against just because we're gay." Except for a small number of transsexual entertainers and patrons of gay bars in Tokyo's Shinjuku area, most Japanese gays hide their sexual preference, fearing discrimination at work and elsewhere in a society where pressure to conform is intense. OCCUR members used the Fuchu Youth House, run by the Tokyo government, once in February 1990. They said they were harassed by a youth soccer team and a church group that were also staying there. When OCCUR applied to use the house again three months later, authorities refused. The Tokyo government's education division said it barred homosexuals for the same reason that it prohibits members of the opposite sex from sharing a room. The suit filed by three OCCUR members demanded $63,000 in damages. In awarding the plaintiffs $2,600, the judge dismissed their damages claim for defamatory remarks allegedly made by government and youth center officials.