--You came back to Japan in 1988?

Yes. I worked in Hakodate City for a Japanese NGO organizing international exchanges for thirteen years. During this time, I met a lot of foreign exchange students, including one gay American man who I came to know well. It was, in fact, through him that I learned for the first time that there was still discrimination against gay people in the US - and I was truly shocked. But that is mostly because while I was living in San Francisco, I hadn't really recognized that, even while they are part of the same country, other places in America are not necessarily the same. Up until then, I believed that, in America, everywhere was as open as San Francisco.

--When we think about America, most people imagine cities like LA, San Francisco, or New York and these places are thought of as relatively open. Some even recognize gay marriage. But, personally, I was surprised to hear how different things are in other parts of the country. Often in my interviews I hear how hard it has been for many people in the US to be gay, not just in the 1980s, but even today. Was this friend your first gay friend?

Yes. I didn’t have any gay friends before him and he told me a lot about his experiences. After this job, in 2001, I decided to move back to my hometown of Aomori where I’ve been ever since. In 2002, I began working for an NGO, and one day a fax came in about a fellowship program in San Francisco and caught my interest. Since my return to Japan, I had stopped thinking so much about the US but, since I started working in the non-profit sector, I began to feel more and more that NGO’s were structured much better in the US. So this was the start of a new focus on America for me.

Furthermore, the fact that the internship was being held in San Francisco, somewhere I had lived for so long and felt so close to, made it seem like it was a good match for me, or at least it awakened a lot of my nostalgia for the city. When applying for the program, for a while I had a hard time deciding whether to go for the Japanese American issues or LGBT issues. But in the end I settled on LGBT. My reasoning was because I thought that I could then use more of what I learned during my internship after my return to Japan. My placement was with CUAV, or “Community United Against Violence”. The organization’s mission is to eradicate violence, in both the form of hate-crimes and the form of domestic violence taking place in LGBT communities.

--You had gone abroad in 2004 to work for this NGO?

Yes, I interned with them for two months, and it was an extremely historic time to be working for LGBT rights in California. Right at that time, same-sex marriages became legally recognized. However, this was soon reversed - so in the short span that I was in California the law was both put into effect and nullified!

--Wow, you were right there in the middle of history happening! Did you know anyone who got married at that time?

Yes. One of my co-workers got married, and I was there at the ceremony. While the happy couple and LGBT folks were overjoyed and celebrating, all these conservative Christians who had gathered before city hall (where the ceremony was being held) were holding demonstrations, waving their bibles, and screaming, “You’re going to hell!” I was in shock. Here, you had a couple just ecstatic for being able to finally have a wedding after waiting for so long and I was watching people shout the most hateful things - it was like nothing I’d ever seen. I was able to see it up close, but I think anyone who would get a glimpse of the same would see it for the lunacy it is.

My supervisor was also attending and she screamed back at the protesters, “Shame on you!” She made me so proud that moment. I felt so honored to be working under her supervision.

--I’ve been to LA Gay Pride several times now, but I remember being so surprised the first time I saw conservative groups holding up crosses and yelling along the sides of the road.

I know. I can’t understand why people would treat other people’s happiness with so much hate. Also, while I was there in 2004, I went to San Francisco’s LGBT Film Festival “Frameline” for the first time, and I was very moved. I saw films at the very same theater that I had seen “The Times of Harvey Milk” in nearly two decades before, but the atmosphere had totally changed. It was bright and uplifting with all this great energy, a big change from the glumness that was present in the 1980s. I also noticed how much fun the volunteer staff seemed to be having and I thought to myself, “How wonderful this film festival is!” That’s what moved me, and I came back to Japan with that feeling still somewhere inside of me.

Translated by Kanadah