A rainbow legacy for the Tokyo Olympics

Japanese Minori Tokieda, a transgender member of Pride House Tokyo, speaks during an online briefing to volunteers from the Olympic and Paralympic Games about the center and the LGTBIQ collective. EFE / María Roldán
Japanese Minori Tokieda, a transgender member of Pride House Tokyo, speaks during an online briefing to volunteers from the Olympic and Paralympic Games about the center and the LGTBIQ collective. EFE / María Roldán

Tokyo, Jun 28 (EFE) .- A new Olympic legacy stands out in Japan, with the LGTBIQ community allied with activists, athletes and volunteers to make Tokyo 2020 the Games of diversity and push the advancement of rights that still resist in the host country.
“I am a lesbian and I never imagined confessing it to hundreds of people, my throat closes,” Yuri Igarashi starts in front of a camera at Pride House Tokyo, the first Japanese space for the rights of the LGTBIQ collective.
On the other side, 430 volunteers from the Games listen online to a training course. Shigeyoshi Suzuki confesses that he is homosexual, Minori Tokieda is transgender and Anri Ono gives advice to avoid discrimination. Concepts that have entered the world of Olympic sport to stay. Also in Japan.
The Japanese volunteers will be guides for athletes and spectators, drivers or medal bearers and prepare for the first Pandemic Games, but they will also see the first trans athlete, New Zealander Laurel Hubbar, compete.
The foreign public will not fill the stands and the local atmosphere will be restricted, but the Japanese LGTBIQ collective feels that this competition, with the world virtually attentive to Japan, should not be wasted. What’s more, they are convinced that it will drive progress.
“The pandemic situation is complicated, between doubts about whether to hold it or not, but if the Tokyo Games start, they will be a great opportunity for change in Japan and inform the world of the collective,” says Gon Matsunaka, president of Pride House Tokyo. .
Thanks to this space, several Japanese athletes have stepped forward and publicly confessed their sexual orientation “contributing to change,” says Matsunaka, while mentioning rugby or soccer players, a boxer and a basketball player.
This pioneer house of Japanese pride opened in October 2020 to promote the rights of the collective and inform the public and is officially recognized by the International Olympic Committee. As of May, nearly 2,000 people had visited her and her legacy aspires to be permanent.
“People come who have never spoken to someone from the group or have not come out of the closet and ask for advice. It is not easy for transgender people to find places like this. Students also come with their teachers ”, says Matsunaka.
Despite the conservative environment in Japanese sports, Pride House Tokyo is promoting changes in the Japanese Olympic Committee itself, which last Friday included transgender activist and former Japanese fencer Fumino Sugiyama among its members.
“The history of sport advances in rights and leaves discrimination behind. Olympism advocates for equality and is a good platform to give your best being yourself, ”says Tokieda, a transgender member who encourages volunteers to wear masks with the rainbow symbol during the competition.
The volunteers of the Olympic Games ask, they have doubts, they do not know what words to avoid so as not to discriminate, what actions to take to show their support or what bathrooms to indicate without assuming anything. The members of the group explain the importance of being informed, talking about it without prejudice and using neutral language.
In Tokyo 2020 the design of the uniforms of the volunteers also comes with a gender perspective and the refereeing uniforms will be without a skirt.
In 2014, the International Olympic Committee included an anti-discrimination clause following the scandal that sparked a Russian anti-homosexual law shortly before the Sochi Games. In 2015, the IOC adopted new guidelines for the participation of transgender athletes in competition.
However, the path to an egalitarian and diverse society through sports competitions collides with few legislative advances in Japan.
The Japanese LGTBIQ collective suffered a severe setback this May, when parliament voted against an anti-discrimination bill and a politician affirmed that the community “is against the species.”
Furthermore, the Japanese transgender law, which Matsunaka describes as “barbaric”, contravenes human rights by obliging people who legally wish to change their gender to become sterilized and not be married.
Japan is also the only member of the G7 that has not recognized homosexual marriage, despite the fact that 102 municipalities have allowed the civil registration of these unions and is at the bottom in LGTBIQ rights among 40 countries of the Organization for Cooperation and Development Economic (OECD).
“Society has changed, the only ones who do not change are Japanese politicians,” says Igarashi, convinced that the message of support from US President Joe Biden through Twitter to Kumi Yokoyama, a transgender footballer in the US, is a good sign.
“I think the number of athletes who will come out of the closet from now on will increase in Japan,” he predicts.
“What legacy do we want to leave to the new generations?” is the final question that Suzuki throws to the volunteers on the other side of the camera.
Carmen Grau Vila