Japanese version

＜Share URL: https://www.change.org/stop-lgbtq-hate-by-ldp-en＞

In a meeting held on the 20th by the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) in Japan, participants have commented that "[Being] LGBT goes against mankind's biological purpose to preserve the species " and that "[being] LGBT cannot be morally condoned".

In July 2018, Japanese Lawmaker in the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), Mio Sugita commented in an article that "LGBT people are unproductive" members of society. Similarly, in September 2020, another member of the LDP and local ward legislator Masateru Shiraishi, commented that "If homosexuality spreads, it would ruin Adachi-ku (his representative ward)." These discriminatory comments have received intense backlash. 

Such appalling discriminatory comments are being repeated again by members of the Liberal Democratic Party. 

Upper house member Eriko Yamatani has mentioned the following at a meeting: 

"People who are physically male entering women's restrooms because they identify as a woman. And in the United States, [they (transgender women)] are participating in track and field and winning gold medals. This is completely absurd." 

These comments completely ignore the existence of transgender women by treating them as if they are cheating in sports.

There is a new draft legislation, expected to pass during this parliamentary session, is aimed at protecting LGBTQ people. It states that "discrimination should not be tolerated" as part of its "basic principle".

During the LDP meeting mentioned above, LDP party members disagreed with this notion that discrimination should not be tolerated, and the following inflamatory comments were heard by other participants: 

"Humans must preserve the species, and [being] LGBT goes against that [goal]." 

"[Being] LGBT cannot be morally condoned."

These comments seem to imply the legislators' hidden desire to intentionally discriminate against LGBTQ people.

In response to the recent comments made by Eriko Yamatani and others (the media has not released their names but they must come forward), we hereby demand them to revoke their comments, make a formal apology, and to resign. To the president of the Liberal Democratic Party, Prime Minister Suga, we demand that he makes a public apology as the party representative and to encourage these party members to resign.

In addition, while there are already 80 countries in the world that have antidiscrimination legislations  in place to protect sexual minorities, but Japan is yet to be one of them. Among OECD nations, Japan ranks second to last in terms of the level of legal protections for LGBTI people. 

In order to improve the apalling state faced by LGBTQ people in Japan, the Liberal Democratic Party should pass a law that "does not tolerate discrimination" as soon as possible.

◯The Japan Times "Japanese lawmaker says being LGBT goes against preservation of species"

＜Share URL: https://www.change.org/stop-lgbtq-hate-by-ldp-en＞