--Other than the events and collaborative projects with the Canton of Geneva, you hold weekly meetings. Where do you hold them and what do you do?

Early on, we would get together in classrooms made available to us by the University. However, later we just wanted to meet somewhere with a little more atmosphere. Soon we began holding our meeting alternately at both Le Phare, which has a relatively high number of gay men, and Livresse, which has a relatively high number of lesbian women.

At our get-togethers we mostly discuss LGBT news and events from around the world, and matters affecting our own lives. All sexual orientations are still not accepted equally within Switzerland today, and so many people are still struggling. Even today, there are suicides. And even where things don't result in suicide, a lot of LGBT individuals are still at a loss over how to come out to their families. For that reason, regular meetings can be an emotional support, and they also provide a good opportunity to meet new people and make new friends. Not to mention it's a great place for couples to sit together and just be themselves!

Above all else, we work to offer a relaxed atmosphere in which anyone can talk about what they want to and have others listen.

--You did just mention this, but I wanted to say that Think Out is terrific for being so involved outside of the university as well.

We set up booths on campus and stay active within the university, but, yes, we do also put a lot of energy into press conferences and engaging the local media to gain exposure. We also write articles too.

We do this because we believe that, in addition to acting as a support for our LGBT members, it's important for us to actively inspire the general public's understanding with regard to our issues. For example, by showing that homosexual and transgendered people do not exist outside of people's day-to-day lives but, rather, they relate to society because of their place in our communities as politicians and court judges and teachers. Think Out makes it a point to convey to those around us that LGBT people exist within every level of society.

With that in mind, we are currently taking on collaborative projects with the Canton of Geneva, especially in public education. In particular, we have been working on a project targeting teachers and educators to establish a working system by September 2009 for promoting tolerance and understanding of queer students in the classroom. We think this is the best way to see that queer folks are accepted and brought into society.

--That's terrific! Last year a system for same-sex partnerships was established, right? For this reason, I think seems like quite an open society to Japanese folks, but what is your personal opinion of the LGBT situation here? Compared to other countries in Europe, just how queer friendly is Switzerland?

Well, you know, if you're in a larger city like Geneva or Lausanne then you have access to a more developed queer community, but persons in rural areas are going to have a harder time. I mean, Switzerland is more tolerant than some countries in Africa or the Middle East, where you can be put to death for homosexuality, but there is still more we can do compared to countries where gay couples can adopt children such as in Holland and Canada.

On an everyday basis, I haven't faced any trouble showing affection for my girlfriend in public. However, to get to the point where I could feel natural being physically affectionate meant I had to come out to myself and my family first. Honestly, the initial process of personal acceptance took a lot of time.

I think it would be ideal if our queer orientation would be seen on the same level as the foods we like - meaning that we would not define or identify people by that alone. I don't think we've reached that point yet today but we are moving ahead. After all, while many countries in the world have not yet passed a system for partnerships or same-sex marriage, the people of Switzerland - not the government alone- approved and passed the right to a civil union system in a national referendum.

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