Japan Bristles at Biden’s Ambassador Rahm Emanuel Pushing LGBTQIA2S+ Law: ‘Sick and Tired of the Interference’Frances Martel 16 May 2023
Observers and conservative voices in Japan are increasingly uncomfortable with President Joe Biden’s ambassador to the country, Rahm Emanuel, inserting himself in domestic politics, particularly pressuring Japan’s legislature to pass a law against LGBT discrimination.
Japanese lawmakers have spent months agonizing over drafting a bill to address LGBT rights and have yet to land on a document with a chance of passing through the Diet, or legislature, at press time. Nearly a month after the conservative ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) agreed to focus on writing an LGBT bill, the LDP announced this week it would finally submit a draft prior to the G7 Summit, beginning on Friday in Hiroshima.
Polling shows most Japanese people support same-sex marriage and oppose discrimination; Japan does not have legalized same-sex marriage but often ranks low on lists of countries where LGBT people risk discrimination.
The bill is presented as an attempt to “foster understanding of sexual minorities.” The need for such a bill has generated controversy — some LGBT groups have opposed it — as have provisions involving people who identify as transgender. Some Japanese women have expressed fear that the law would allow men into sensitive women’s spaces, such as bathrooms or public baths (where, in Japan, strangers commonly bathe together but nude and separated by gender). LDP leaders expressed hope this week that the new draft of the bill would assuage those concerns.
Emanuel, as a foreign diplomat, has cannonballed into this sensitive debate, pressuring the Diet to embrace Western notions of LGBT rights. The ambassador pressured the Diet in February to become a “clear, unambiguous voice not only for tolerance but against discrimination,” asserting he had “full confidence” in conservative Prime Minister Kishida Fumio to push through a bill of Emanuel’s liking. He has since made multiple public appearances, noting polls showing Japanese public support for same-sex marriage and advocating for domestic laws to reflect those polls.
Last week, during heated partisan debates on what the text of the LGBT bill should include, Emanuel used his Twitter account to publish a video featuring the diplomats of 15 Western missions in Tokyo demanding legislation on the issue.
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https://www.breitbart.com/asia/2023/05/16/japan-bristles-at-rahm-emanuel-diplomacy/
