By Justin McCurry / The Guardian, Tokyo
Days after US President Barack Obama gave his public backing to gay
marriages in the US, Mickey Mouse has emerged as the unlikely champion
of same-sex unions in Japan.
Tokyo Disneyland said this week it
would allow gay couples to hold ceremonies on its grounds, although
same-sex weddings have no legal status in Japan.
Disneyland’s
decision came to light after Koyuki Higashi, a 27-year-old woman,
inquired about marrying her female partner, identified only as Hiroko,
at the resort.
Higashi was initially told she would be able to
marry her partner provided they were dressed “like a man and a woman,”
she wrote on her blog. Staff at Disneyland, which attracts about 14
million visitors a year, were apparently concerned about how other
visitors would react to the sight of couples both dressed in wedding
dresses or tuxedos.
A spokeswoman for Milial Resort Hotels, a
subsidiary of Tokyo Disney Resort, later said there had been a
misunderstanding, telling Higashi and her partner they could dress how
they pleased, although they would not be able to exchange vows in the
chapel because of “Christian teachings.”
The park said it would
accept all applications for same-sex wedding ceremonies. The only
obstacle now appears to be financial: a full wedding ceremony in
Cinderella’s castle, with Disney characters included on the guest list,
costs about US$95,000.
Disneyland’s stance was a rare sign of
progress in a country still uncertain about its attitude towards
homosexuality. There are no laws against homosexuality, and Tokyo is
home to a large lesbian gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) population,
many of whom took part in the capital’s first rainbow pride event last
month.
Gay and transgender celebrities are regulars on TV variety shows,
while Taiga Ishikawa became Japan’s first openly gay politician when he
won a seat in Tokyo’s Toshima ward assembly in April last year.
Ishikawa
welcomed Disneyland’s decision, which apparently came after officials
in Tokyo contacted the company’s US headquarters. “I wrote 10 years ago
that I looked forward to the day when gay and lesbian couples could hold
hands and go to Tokyo Disneyland, so I’m very happy,” he said.
But he added that Japanese gay men and women were still uncomfortable about making their sexuality public.
“We’re
still not at the point where a man or woman can say they have a
same-sex partner, especially to colleagues. But now that gay marriages
are in the news overseas, there is better awareness here, at least.”
Obama’s
endorsement of gay marriages was the cue for an outburst from Takeshi
Kitano, the internationally acclaimed filmmaker, who caused dismay in
the LGBT community when he ridiculed the US president’s stance during an
appearance on a TV news program.
Kitano suggested permitting gay
marriages would lead to unions between humans and animals, and
questioned the ability of gay couples to raise children. “The child will
be bullied,” he said. “People will say, ‘But your mum is actually your
dad.’”
His homophobic comments were not the first by a
high-profile public figure in Japan. In late 2010, Shintaro Ishihara,
the outspoken governor of Tokyo, suggested gay people were “deficient”
after watching same-sex couples take part in a parade in San Francisco.
“We have even got homosexuals casually appearing even on television,” he said. “Japan has become far too untamed.”
Higashi and her partner have visited Disneyland to break their good
news to Mickey Mouse, but have yet to set a date for the wedding.
“Mickey first looked surprised to hear that we are a couple of girls,”
she said on her blog. “But we said we were there to thank him ... and he
celebrated with us.”
But, she added, taboos surrounding sexuality
had forced many gay and lesbian couples to keep their relationships
secret. “There is still a lot of prejudice at work and in people’s homes
to prevent a lot of us from coming out,” she told Reuters. “Also, when
the only public gays you see are the comedians on television who are the
butt of public ridicule, it’s hard to find a good reason to come out.”