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Japan Court Rules Against Mandatory Transgender Sterilization (www.hrw.org)

submitted 8 months ago by Wahots@pawb.social to c/lgbtq_plus@beehaw.org

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[-] detectivemittens@beehaw.org 37 points 8 months ago

I’m glad this ruling happened. Why was there this law in the first place? The lengths that people go to twist the law to be cruel to other people is awful.

[-] t3rmit3@beehaw.org 34 points 8 months ago

Japan is extremely conservative in certain ways, usually because of their focus on conformance to social norms.

I encountered gay men not-infrequently while I lived there, and Japanese people are (for the most part) fine with them even if uncomfortable, but from a legal standpoint, Japan mostly prefers to pretend the LGBT+ community doesn't exist, and can be very hostile towards it when it's forced to acknowledge them (such as in medical contexts).

[-] agrammatic@feddit.de 27 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

Why was there this law in the first place?

In Europe at least, it was often explained as "same-sex marriage and parenthood are not allowed, and a legal gender change cannot be a loophole to that". But it appears to be a post-hoc rationalisation since the forced sterilisation programmes have many more targets in the past until it was progressively abandoned for more and more groups. It was also becoming untenable since more and more countries were legalising same-sex parenthood.

So, if we are being more honest, it's eugenics.

[-] t3rmit3@beehaw.org 22 points 8 months ago

I love Japan, but sometimes I really really hate their judicial and justicial systems, and the xenophobia and conformism that often underpins them.

[-] storksforlegs@beehaw.org 16 points 8 months ago

TIL Japan forced trans people to be sterilized, jesus christ. (i mean, its very good that theyre stopping but holy crap.)

[-] interolivary@beehaw.org 9 points 8 months ago

So did Finland up until earlier this year

[-] Shiggs@lemmy.blahaj.zone 15 points 8 months ago

I'm sorry, but WHAT?! A large majority of us already fucking self-sterilize with HRT, why would they even bother?

[-] ShaunaTheDead@kbin.social 14 points 8 months ago

I saw a video explaining why Japan is seemingly more okay with transgender people than other queer people and basically it boiled down to conforming to society is very important in Japanese culture, and so being a straight transgender person is seen as conforming to the norm. If you're a straight trans-woman then you're just like the average cis-woman, and vice versa for the guys.

[-] sculd@beehaw.org 14 points 8 months ago

WOW! A big step forward for Japan!!! (A long way to go I know but still)

[-] xilliah@beehaw.org 7 points 8 months ago

It keeps surprising me what kind of strange processes exist for transgender people in various countries. Like either accept them or don't but what's with all this in between nonsense.