Panel discusses issues beyond marriage equality for LGBTQ people

Editor’s Note: Tomo Hirai is a member of Tadaima: A Japanese American Gathering of LGBTQQ and Allies’ (volunteer) organizing committee. A panel presentation on the current issues lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and questioning community members face was held Feb. 23 at the Buddhist Church of San Francisco in San Francisco’s Japantown. The program, hosted […]

THE GREAT UNKNOWN AND THE UNKNOWN GREAT: The civil rights politics and complexities of Nikkei ‘coming out’ as LGBT

This week’s entry represents the seventh annual column that I have produced for the Nichi Bei on the queer heritage of Japanese Americans. In past entries, I have explored such topics as the varieties of Issei sexuality, the turn to Western-style family models (and homophobia) within Japanese communities, and the community’s turn to support for […]