[Special Feature: Looking Toward CGS's 10th Anniversary]
Akira SHIMADA
filmmaker; Executive Director, Rainbow Action
[The article below is the same as the article that appears in the sixteenth issue of the CGS Newsletter.]
Rainbow Action Executive Director and filmmaker Akira Shimada wrote an article titled, "My Future as an Ordinary Gay Man," under the pseudonym "Akaboshi" for the seventh issue of our newsletter. Since then he has participated in a number of our events, including three of our film screenings. In this issue, he shares his personal thoughts and hopes for the future direction of CGS.
This is rather embarrassing to admit, but I did not even know the term "sexual orientation" until I attended Kanako Otsuji's lecture, "Toward a Society that Celebrates Diversity," organised by CGS in 2006. Until then, I did not know what to think of my own inclination to fall in love with men. This lecture led me to the important realization that I had been denied the opportunity to learn about myself simply because I was a minority. To this day, sexual diversity is not mentioned in the compulsory education curriculum in Japan. I hope that CGS will continue to provide such opportunities for discovery and realization for the many other people out there who must feel like I once did.
In my activities with Rainbow Action, a group for sexual minorities in Japan, I find that we are being approached by increasing numbers of people who say, "I am not a sexual minority myself but ..." When I talk to them, I learn that they are worn out by the restrictive norms of "masculinity" or "femininity" that are imposed on them by society. They have difficulty finding people with whom they can share their true feelings owing to the stigma associated with this issue. I am deeply concerned about the large number of such people who struggle to forge bonds in their community.
I hope that CGS will continue to include all kinds of people, regardless of their sexual identities, in their activities - creating opportunities for people to meet, forge bonds and disseminate ideas. New encounters with different people will ultimately help us to discover and expand our potential.