[ SECRET POST #2002 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #2002 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 03 pages, 066 secrets from Secret Submission Post #286.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ], [ 1 2 - text comments ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[omar]

I live in Japan, and in some ways, it's more homophobic than the US. You get a lot less "God hates fags" types, obviously, but being gay is still seen as completely unnatural and strange by most average people. I'm pretty sure gay people still have no equal protection act, and gay marriage won't even be a topic of conversation here for years.

To add, a couple of anecdotes:

1) I was at work one day and a guy comes up to me and goes, "Hey, I was talking to someone about Boston and... well... is it true there are gay people there??" I'm like, uh, yes, there are gay people everywhere? The dude bursts out in uncomfortable laughter and hurries off.

2) The other day, I had a Japanese friend over for tea, and she said something about her favorite actor (Ryoma Sakamoto) not being married at 40. I joked, "Maybe he's gay." She stared at me completely blankly. I told her that in the US, a lot of actors are coming out lately, and it's not seen as a big deal. She shook her head and said, "Yeah, we don't talk like that here..."

3) An acquaintance of mine from a different prefecture came out as a lesbian to her office. Their response was to try to set her up with an effeminate male coworker.

So it's a lot of ignorant, closed-off stuff like that.

[diet_poison]

Oh, man. =/ That's kind of depressing. And surprising, really. But sad.

[opal_skies]

I wonder about the next generation changing that. It won't be for another couple of decades, given the current population gap between the young and gap, but I wonder. I don't know that it will change terribly much. I have Japanese friends on both ends of the spectrum. One friend, my former roommate, pleasantly surprised me by matter-of-factly bringing up the idea of transsexualism/transgenderism in a conversation, mentioning a transperson who had come to speak to her class at university. Conversely, my boyfriend visited Florida a couple years ago and was "afraid" of the rainbow flags. He seems to think gay people will molest you without warning. He also said "gross!" at a joke I made involving two of his favorite (male) characters holding hands and/or dating. He was laughing while he said it, but it still bothered me, small as it is.

Sorry, endless examples...
Another Japanese friend once asked me, "Speaking of which, why -are- there so many gay people in America?" I told her that it's necessarily that America has so many, as that, compared to Japan, more people are out. She seemed surprised and somewhat unconvinced when I suggested she probably knew many gay people, but just didn't know it.

Another boy I knew at my university in the US had a rather charmingly innocent, if somewhat caveman-ish response. One of my friends, Rob*, a gay boy, walked past. This boy asked me, half-whisperingly, "Is Rob gay?"
"Yep."
"So, when he sees a girl, he feels nothing?"
"Well, it's like for you... when you see a good-looking boy, how do you feel?"
"Like...'cool.' But I don't want."
"And when you see a beautiful girl?"
"I want." (xD)
"Right. It's the same for Rob, except the opposite."

I don't know exactly where that exchange left him, but I still think it's sort of sweet, somehow.


SORRY I HAVE A LOT OF FEELING ABOUT THIS WHOLE THANG