h061202: Kawasaka, Kazuyoshi [CGS NewsLetter 001]
On December the nineteenth 2003, Ms. Kamikawa came to ICU to give a lecture of the commemoration seminar for the Human Rights Day. In 2003, she became the first person in Japan to register as an election candidate with a gender different from that listed in her official family register. She was elected as a councilor of Setagaya Assembly officially announcing that she is a transgender. Transgender is "A person with Gender Identity Disorder (GID) suffers from the discrepancy of one's identity: between one's body and one's identified sex". The World Health Organization acknowledges it, according to her homepage.
It is now becoming more and more common to hear the terms such as "transgender" or "Gender Identity Disorder" than it used to. However, it is not so common for many people to actually use these terms, rather, they will receive the impression that these terms are for "sexually abnormal" or "pitiful" people.
In the lecture, Ms. Kamikawa presented the situation transgender people are facing based on her own experience. Behaving as a man at work made such a stress that her hair came off. She also experienced the difficulty renting a room or hunting a job having a different gender such as a name or physical appearances that are different from the one listed in the official family register. These actual stories enabled me to grasp the sense that how much hardship transgender people have. I felt embarrassment and range for not noticing until now that transgender people have difficulty living because of our "common sense".
Moreover, one of the hardest things for transgender people is to have the understanding of their families. I felt the hardship as she talked about when she confessed her father about her feelings with tears in her eyes. Ms. Kamikawa now works for minority people who suffer from the same situation as one of the minority people herself. She is now taking an action for those people who are challenged hearing and people who have artificial anus. Working not only for one but also for many makes her more attractive.
In the fall 2003, ICU established a system to allow students to choose their name and sex. There could be an objection to discuss sex that has been taken for granted, however, to make the society easier for one to live should be rather taken for granted.