Greg Knotts: This abstract was culled from the back of the book and table of contents.
In this important contribution to international queer studies, sixteen people, spanning generations from pre-war to newly out young activists, tell their stories. "Doseiai" (same sex love between men) has never been legally nor socially accepted in Japan. Until recently there were not even terms to describe women-loving-women. With a new courage and consciousness, Japanese queers are now beginning to speak out.
As American gay men, lesbians and transsexuals continue to battle a conservative, Puritanical society for the right to simply be human, it is immeasurably valuable to hear the words, spoken with a courageous lack of ambiguity, of homosexuals and transsexuals fighting for the same right in a culture even more rigid and denying. In these essays and interviews, bright, brave, large-hearted people tell us of their efforts to live happily and, in the process, create a Japan in which they will be accepted as citizens.
commenting closed for this article