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Japan's Supreme Court upholds transgender sterilization requirement
Those who wish to change their gender on official documents must have their original reproductive organs removed, according to the 2004 law.
Japan’s Supreme Court has upheld a law that effectively requires transgender people to be sterilized before they can have their gender changed on official documents.
The court said the law is constitutional because it was meant to reduce confusion in families and society. But it acknowledged that it restricts freedom and could become out of step with changing social values.
[...] [Takakito] Usui, 45, had appealed to the top court after he unsuccessfully requested lower courts to grant him legal recognition as male without having his female reproductive glands surgically removed.
Despite the unanimous decision, presiding justice Mamoru Miura joined another justice in saying that while the law may not violate the constitution, “doubts are undeniably emerging,” according to Usui’s lawyer, Tomoyasu Oyama.
The two judges proposed regular reviews of the law and appropriate measures “from the viewpoint of respect for personality and individuality,” according to Japanese media reports.
[...] Japan does not legally recognize same-sex marriages. As LGBTQ rights awareness has gradually grown in recent years, some municipalities have begun issuing partnership certificates to ease problems in renting apartments and other areas, but they are not legally binding.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 28 2019, @04:31AM
There's no standard of reference for being "overly-feminine" except individual tastes and preferences. A trans woman who celebrates a demure and submissive idea of womanhood is precisely feminine enough for her. And her partner. Whether some third party thinks it too much or too little femininity is altogether beside the point.
Nor is this merely some survival mechanism. Many trans women find joy and genuine fulfillment in these arrangements. Perhaps much like the (underrepresented) majority of housewives in 1950s American, who found traditional femininity empowering.
There's a certain poetry to how trans women are rediscovering the soul of femininity. A bit like finding the essence of the "American dream" in an immigrant neighborhood and not a WASPy country club. Competition is great for any market.
Those with the privilege of being incumbant players (cis women) will naturally complain, but everybody will find a place in the new equillibrium.