Wedding Bells For Kanako Otsuji

[Mulboyne]

[floatl][/floatl]PinkNews: Lesbian politician in Japan gets hitched
Japan's first openly lesbian politician celebrated her same-sex partnership on Sunday, a month before elections for Japan's upper house. Kanako Otsuji, 32, is a candidate for the Democratic Party of Japan in next month's election for the House of Councillors. She tied the knot with her partner of four years, Maki Kimura, 32. Their wedding took place in Ikeda Park in Nagoya, the country's third largest city, during an HIV/AIDS prevention festival called Nagoya Lesbian & Gay Revolution. Some 1,000 guests attended the wedding. The leader of the Democratic Party of Japan, Ichiro Ozawa, the Secretary General of the Party, Yukio Hatoyama, and Fusae Ota, the Governor of Osaka all sent congratulatory telegrams to Miss Otsuji...The couple's union is not legally recognised as Japan does not have same-sex marriage or civil partnerships...more...

[Taro Toporific]

PinkNews: Lesbian politician in Japan gets hitched

I think they used the wrong wedding picture.
Here is the real photo of the brides, and below that are shots of the guests. . .




I found these photos while clearing up my confusion between the transgendered J-politician who I remembered as slim and sort of attractive (Aya Kamikawa, R) and the new lesbian bride, Otsuji-san (L).

[Kanchou]

Honestly though, girls like that should be wearing tuxes, not dresses...

(because they're butch, not because they're lesbians)

[Mulboyne]

That's Elena Ferragamo on the right. Here's another pic, inevitably from Rumiko Miyazaki's site:



She used to be the DJ at strip club Orange when it moved to Iikura Katamachi. That was a hell of a place. The interior was designed by Kyoichi Tsuzuki who also did Ebisu Milk and released the "Roadside Japan" photobook. To compete with Seventh Heaven's lap dances, they used to offer bed dances. It was more burlesque than seedy strip club (am I trying too hard to draw a distinction?) with a fair number of female customers too. Orange had been in a building in Nogizaka just down the road from Seventh Heaven but the local mobsters forced them to move. When they still did good business in the Iikura dead zone, the mob got them closed down.

[GuyJean]

First Gay Candidate Runs in Japan
http://edition.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/06/20/japan.gay.reut/index.html

Japan's first openly lesbian politician hopes running for parliament will raise awareness of gay rights in a society so conservative that many prefer to stay in the closet.

Kanako Otsuji, 32, who is backed by the main opposition Democratic Party, would become the first openly gay national politician of either sex if she wins a seat in parliament's upper house in a poll expected in July.

Otsuji, who served as a local legislator in the western city of Osaka for four years until April, said her decision to become a politician was inspired by the pain and isolation of the five years it took her to accept that she was a lesbian.

"In Japan, you cannot say you are a lesbian," she told a news conference on Wednesday.

"There are no lesbians among famous TV stars or other celebrities, so I didn't think there were any in this country at all, and this filled me with doubt," she said of the struggle for self-acceptance that began when she was 18.

"I decided to become a politician to change society, to deliver the message that we aren't ashamed to be what we are."

If she becomes a lawmaker, Otsuji said she wants to fight to create laws that promote a more diverse society and prohibit discrimination, including against sexual minorities.

Elected to the Osaka legislature in 2003, Otsuji helped change laws to make it easier for same-sex couples to rent public housing. She also fought unsuccessfully last year to keep a Japanese city from amending a rare law that had explicitly banned discrimination based on gender or sexual orientation.

Otsuji came out as a lesbian in 2005. In her autobiography, "Coming Out: a Journey to Find My True Self," she said: "I thought I could give courage to the most people this way."

Her constituents seemed not to mind, but she decided not to run again in April because a revision of legislative districts had reduced her chances of winning...

Ooops. I think I posted the wrong image.

Actually, Otsuji-san spoke at my company for a Diversity Event; she seemed nice, and I was impressed with her candor..

GJ

[Tsuru]

Let's stick to the facts here GJ

[Charles]

You misspelled "resbian erection."

[Mulboyne]

Could these "sexual minorities" be some someone like us FG's?!?!

When I see the picture GJ posted, I feel a majority coming on.

[GuyJean]

Hey, enough with the political inuendos.. You sickos!

GJ

[Greji]

When I see the picture GJ posted, I feel a majority coming on.

Agreed! I think I will select GJ's lesbian over Tsuru's lesbian. Probably, my political upbringing.

[Red Floyd]

You know what? Good for her.

[Behan]

I was really hoping it would be the woman in the picture. Damn!:(

I think the first woman's picture should be in the dictionary under YBF. Hey, maybe someone could add it to Wikipedia!

[GuyJean]

I was really hoping it would be the woman in the picture. Damn!:(

It is!



GJ

[Behan]

That's really funny!

[GuyJean]

I'm voting for her.. She looks totally different out of the suit..

GJ

[baka tono]

Someone should send that to her it could help with her campaign, and maybe her love life too.

[succubusqueen]

quite different indeed!

[Mulboyne]

...and maybe her love life too.

She just got married.

[kurohinge1]

She just got married.

Despite the Democratic Party behind her, Kanako Otsuji has ended up going down after having no luck maintaining her election.

. . . She had vowed to promote a more diverse society and seek laws to prohibit discrimination, including against sexual minorities, and had planned to introduce a bill legalising same-sex marriage . . . more

[Greji]

[quote="kurohinge1"]Despite the Democratic Party behind her, Kanako Otsuji has ended up going down after having no luck maintaining her election.



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