Broad Horizons
同志社香里高等学校

３年

中

村奈

保Do you know the real meaning of the rainbow flag which you use on SNS
sites such as Twitter or Instagram? I don’t mind that you use cute emoji, but
I hope you have an understanding of the icon. This is a symbol of LGBT.
Have you ever heard that? LGBT stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, andtransgender. These days it has become an important issue throughout theworld and there are many problems we need to solve. By learning about thistopic, I realized how narrow minded I have been and how serious of aproblem discrimination is. Especially, Japan is out of touch with LGBT issues
高校生―Ｄ部門I think. There are many more people than we think in distress because they
can’t come out. What should we do for them?
A recent survey shows 7.6 percent of people are in the sexual minority. It
is only natural that we have friends or relatives who are suffering alone. It
might imply we force them into a difficult situation because our society makes
it so hard to come out. I think the Media shows us that Japanese people do
not care about the problem. These days we can see many celebrities who havepublicallyannounced

thattheyaresexualminorities

orthattheyaretransgender. If you get asked to mention them, many might be able to namea few. They have bright personalities and are often very funny. However, don’t
you think it is only something they show on TV? Those who are in showbusiness not only encourage people to live life in their own way, but they also
lead people to see LGBT people as a stereotype. We should know they aren’t
a novelty for our entertainment.
I know a person who came out recently. He said, “I was scared to tell thetruth, and afraid my friends will dislike me. I was afraid of being alone
because I really like you all.” They are suffering from the conflict of whether
to say their true feeling. All we can do is to notice their pain and listen tothem. They are human, the same as me. They have feelings, the same as you.
Everyone has a right to love someone. It doesn’t matter who that is. We have56

to remember we all have different interests, personalities and ways of thinking.
There is no normal.
We need to change our mindset and think of sex and gender as aspectrum. We are standing on a scatter diagram which shows the relationshipbetween sexual orientation and gender identity. Imagine a girl who neverwears skirts and likes to play baseball and has short hair. Is she strange? No,
she isn’t. What about a boy who likes pink and plays the piano? Whodetermines what our interests are? The same can be said about who we love.
What I want to say is it depends on the person.
My goal is to “Broaden my horizons.” I think it is really important fortoday’s global world. I need to keep my eyes wide open and accept who theworld that is changing rapidly. Now, some countries have introduced same-sex
marriage. And also Japan announced certification of partnership for same sex

by little. But it is not enough. I think treasuring every encounter with others
will make your life more meaningful. Love your character and respect eachother, because everyone is special.

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高校生―Ｄ部門

couples in a few urban areas. In this way, LGBT rights are advancing little