Toward Holding the LGBT Coming of Age at Saitama – Coming ofAge, Becoming true to oneself
Representative of ing!!
Rina Matsugawa
Notes for readers: Portions surrounded by boxes are commentary by COJ. The rest of thedocumentation is by Ms. Matsugawa, who received peer coaching after a Changemakers
Academy workshop.
This translation from Japanese is by Sophie Welsh and edited by Kanoko Kamata.
【Summary of project】
1. How would you describe the organizing project in one word? (Organizing sentence)
We want to create a society where individuals can affirm themselves, including people
who feel isolated by their inability to express their sexual orientations and the sexual lifestyles
they seek, by holding an LGBT1 coming of age ceremony in Saitama for at least 100
participants, organizing 30 constituents and using their experiences, economic power, networks,various skills, and motivation for a comfortable society for LGBT people to approach the kind ofsociety described above.

Organizers brainstorming about theevent program at a meeting

The facility which became the venue forLGBT Coming of Age @ Saitama:barrier-free from the entrance to the hall.

2. What kinds of urgent topics are there for whom?
1​LGBT is an acronym for “Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender” and denotes sexual minorities.

However, it does not limit sexuality to those four categories.

Just a year ago, when I participated in an LGBT coming of age in Tokyo, one staff
member said, “Until I met my current friends, I thought I was the only gay in the world.” I felt thatI understood somewhat. This is because until a few years ago, I used to think, “I’m the onlywoman in the world who masturbates.” I had started masturbating in childhood, and aroundmiddle and high school, I wondered, “Am I the only one doing this?” and came to feel disgustedby myself. No matter where I looked, there was nothing written about female masturbation, so I
thought it wasn’t possible except to myself. This action of mine became a top secret and wascompletely suppressed without even counting as a personal complex. When I saw myself
naked, it felt as if I were confronting my masturbation, and I came to hate my body. But when I
was 26 years old, I read Minori Kitahara’s book “Did you become beautiful through An-An-stylesex?” which had happened to fall into my hands by chance, and for the first time in my life I
came across the ideas that “women have sexual desire too” and “women can also be active
about sex and erotism”, and it changed my life. I was able to accept that I was fine the way I
was, and I felt that I had become one with my body.
Around this time, I noticed that I had long held doubts regarding gender roles around“femininity” and “masculinity”. When I was a student, I’d had opportunities to go to seminars on
gender studies, and I’d felt comfortable there for some reason, and I realized the reason for this:I’d felt relieved there because “femininity” was never forced upon me and I was accepted as I
was. I think that spaces which do not impose gender roles are friendly toward everyone
regardless of sexual minority or majority status.
As I started making realizations about my own consciousness of my own issues, I
started thinking about whether I could do anything for others who suffer in similar ways.
Concerns about sexuality are difficult to discuss, even with those close to us, and they can leadpeople to suicide. I have heard that the rate of failed suicide attempts among LGBT people issix times that of non-LGBT people.2 I think it is an urgent topic to tell people with those kinds ofconcerns, “You are not alone”.
As I thought about what to do and where, a major starting point of this campaign was thewish of a member, a Saitama native and current resident who founded the team with me, to dosomething in Saitama. According to her, even if one comes out at an LGBT-related event inTokyo, it is still common to return to the closet3 after returning to Saitama. Coming out is not anobligation, but it could be beneficial to have a space in one’s own environment to affirm oneself
as one is, and to celebrate each other. I believe I came to hold this position because I myself
am from the countryside and because I was strongly committed to her. Because of thesecircumstances, it came to pass that we would hold LGBT Coming of Age @ Saitama.

​Produced by non-profit organization ReBit：“It’s not just male and female! Handbook forteachers to deal with LGBT children”.
3​A state of not having come out as LGBT2

3. How can the issue be resolved? (Theory of change and strategic goal)
For LGBT people and allies4 within Saitama Prefecture to create connections throughthis plan, and to enable people within Saitama to realize, “We have this many supporters”.
4. Campaign Timeline- During the preparatory phase, we assembled the committee at large (2nd tier), it became 5people in September (7 people including the core).
- In October, there was an increase of 3 in the committee at large, 1 in November, 1 inDecember, totaling 12 including the core staff.

4​Someone who is not LGBT themselves, but thinks about the rights of LGBT people- The event day volunteer staff (3rd tier) increased by 6 in November, 8 in December, 5 inJanuary, and 5 in February.
- From the latter half of January, the assisting staff for the event almost doubled.
5. TimelineYear month

Activity ・ event

September 2015

Kickoff! LGBT Coming of Age @ Saitama
Committee at Large assembled (Meeting 0)

October 2015

First Saitama Committee at Large meeting
held. Members increased rapidly, andfinancing and other operations started. Core
members increased from 2 to 3 people.

November 2015

First meeting for event day volunteers.
Expansion to the 3rd tier.

December 2015

Increase in members due to scattering oforganizing staff members. Increase in staff
related to the organization of the ceremony.

January 2016

Committee at large meeting held in the firstweek. Unity among committee at large
members intensified around this time.

February 6th, 2016

LGBT Coming of Age @ Saitama.

【Process】
Leading toward the final peak comprising the LGBT Coming of Age @ Saitama (heldFebruary 6th, 2016), we assembled the core team (1st tier), committee at large (2nd tier), otherstaff and event-day volunteer staff (3rd tier) starting in June 2015.
The core team held weekly online meetings and monthly online meetings, and held
monthly offline meetings with the committee at large. The 3rd tier members held ad hoc offline
conversations, but fundamentally held one explanatory meeting before the event, as well as
final meetings on the day before and the day of the event.
1) On the structure of the leadership team
The core team (leadership team) was first composed of Matsugawa, who first thought ofthe plan, and one other member. Each went to LGBT-related events and selected among thosethey met to hold one-on-one meetings in order to recruit others who would help with planning.

These new members formed the second tier (LGBT Coming of Age Ceremony @ Saitama
committee at large). Some way through the process, one member of this second tier was highly
motivated, and upon considering the core membership criteria (someone who can look over theplanning as a whole and help think what is needed; someone who can participate in the weekly
core meeting), this person was recruited to the core team.
The members of the second tier were at first organized on the criterion of having
previously participated in monthly organizational meetings, but it became clear partway throughthat there were differences among the members’ images of success. Upon convening, the core
members conducted further one-on-ones and reset our course. After that, it became mandatory
to conduct one-on-ones with those who would compose the committee at large.
2) Strategy
Holding regular meetings for the committee at large and explanatory meetings for theevent day volunteer staff (both at a frequency of once a month). Other activities wereundermined by preparatory obligations for the success of the event, and team cohesion failed.
The leaders also were not able to do their jobs well. As a result, a policy of “the person whonotices does the job” arose, and much of the burden fell on particular members.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Commentary on skills used by COJ 1. Skill of building relationships through shared values <Building relationships>
LGBT Coming of Age @ Saitama at first was founded by Matsugawa and another workshop
participant in June 2015. Since neither of them were connected to LGBT networks, they
participated in various events by LGBT organizations, actively conducted one-on-one meetings,
and recruited people with whom they shared values to the core and second tier committees.
What was significant was that when Matsugawa communicated her values and foundational
experience in her “story of self” and asked for her interlocutor’s values and causal experience in“coaching”, she said “Oh, I think I can take action alongside this person”, and this is true incommunity organizing by connections through values. They conducted one-on-ones with 16
people over these eight months.
This is also in Matsugawa documentation, but they decided to always hold one-on-one meetings
with people who would become members to share values. As a result, this sharing of values
occurred thoroughly, enabling a fantastic ceremony with various people including LGBT people
and allies cooperating with each other.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------3) How to build an outwardly expanding organization

There was a member in the second tier committee who sought actors voluntarily for thesuccess of the event. They were able to receive cooperation in the forms of publicity,sponsorship, and donations from acquaintances. In addition, we gained more second-tiercommittee members and event day volunteer staff (venue preparation and introduction,
makeup, hosting, and others who contributed to the event program).
At the same time, starting around October, we held a monthly “volunteer staff
explanatory meeting” to recruit third-tier volunteers. We reached out through Facebook, Twitter,and network through committee members. At these explanatory meetings, we shared the ing!!
Policy and purpose in holding LGBT Coming of Age @ Saitama, and had them talk about what
had brought them, prioritizing the question of whether we could share values and the kind ofsociety we aim for.
Partway through, in cases where members were going in a different direction to theevent opening (“I want to leave the committee”, “we shouldn’t hold this event”), the leaders
conducted one-on-ones and tried to solve the problem through coaching.
There were some within the committee who had been active in extracurricular activities
and nonprofit organizations and had already been active in LGBT-related activities in theprefecture or the city, but half of them were first-time participants who had thought that theywanted to do something related to the LGBT cause. Thus, the LGBT Coming of Age @Saitama committee was composed of experienced and inexperienced people of diverse ages
and sexualities (pansexual5, genderless/nonbinary,6 transgender, bisexual, homosexual,heterosexual, questioning7) as one of multiple LGBT-related organizations in the prefecture.
Within those organizations, this was the first to hold a large event for over a hundred people atonce. By the end of the ceremony, most of the members agreed to repeat it next year, and we
had gained enough members to make a yearly continuations of the LGBT Coming of Age @Saitama possible.
Below are the values that we indicated to at the committee meetings and to the event day
volunteer staff.
(1) Policy of ing!! Activity
We seek to create a society where individuals can affirm themselves, including people who feel
isolated by their inability to express their sexual orientations and the sexual lifestyles they seek.
(2) Purpose of LGBT Coming of Age @ Saitama​Orientation which cannot be classified as homosexual or heterosexual. Not discriminate bygender. (Refer to the book ​"Yuri no Riaru" by Asako Makimura, Seikaisha, 2015​)
6​Those who choose to live neither as male nor female (same source).
7​Those who have not yet chosen their sexual preference (same source).
5●●People who want to freely express themselves where they live, and their friends, family,and others who support them. To create a place where all can gather to celebrate their
becoming who they want to be and feel the presence of people of all sexualities.
To make it a space where people of diverse sexualities can share common thoughts andcreate connections.

Snowflake diagram※The blue solid line denotes recruitments, the dotted line the explanatory meetings (gainingcommitment collectively), and the red line the tiers.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Commentary on skills used by COJ 2. Division of labor among teammates <Team structure>
They had a problem in raising motivation levels in the second-tier committee. Uponhearing out the problem in coaching, they found that the division of labor between thecore team and second-tier committee team, and that there was a distance with thecommittee members. To clarify the division of labor that is crucial to the team structure,
the core team discussed the allocation of roles and clarified the boundaries ofresponsibilities, and there was an increase in those who were active in the second-tiercommittee as well.
By preparing various member relationships with 1​st​tier being the core team, 2​nd​tier being
the committee at large, and 3​rd​tier being the event day volunteers, we were able tosnowflake.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------4) Setting goals for the peak action, taking action, and reflecting on each peak actionSince the final peak campaign was quite a big project, it was difficult to create several
peaks by then. Our alternative was the monthly committee meetings and the dinner party
afterward. The core and committee members had done some one-on-ones, so the relations
were built to some extent, but since there were few chances for the committee members to meeteach other, and due to the large age gaps, their connections were thin.
5) The conditions of the project and goals going forward
On Saturday, February 6th, we held the final peak, LGBT Coming of Age Ceremony @Saitama. The 3 first-tier core team members, 11 second-tier committee at large members,and
35 third-tier event-day volunteer staff gathered, and the participants numbered 139 (of which 99
participated in the mixer afterward).
We are currently doing post-event obligations (thanking the supporters, calculating
payments). From March to April, we will hold committee meetings, reflect on recorded footage,
reconvene committee members, and reorganize the team. The next campaigns we hope toconduct are a screening party of the film and the second LGBT Coming of Age Ceremony @Saitama. The image below is a page taken from the pamphlet distributed on the day of theevent.

【After receiving coaching】

By receiving coaching on topics concerning the team and ourselves, I was able to manage theissue and clarify what we would do toward the solution. I was able to reflect this in the team’s
operation, and it was extremely beneficial. A big source of learning was that through repeatedcoaching, I was able to watch Junko and Kanoko’s coaching. Since we sometimes coached ourteam members, it was helpful. During our peer coaching, I was able to see other organizers,
and sometimes they had the same issues I did. It was encouraging to see these shared issues.
I was able to talk about things that were difficult to discuss in the team, so it was a goodsupport.
Reflection on the campaign
1. Pluses (what we did well)
It was a big project and we had several moments of “falling off the bike”, but on the dayof the event, I truly felt glad to have undertaken it. I felt that we had fulfilled the goal ofactualizing the presence the LGBT people of Saitama. I also felt we had expanded thecampaign when several event participants said, “I would like to hold an LGBT coming of age in
my area too.”
2. Deltas (points to improve)
There were only two others who knew the CO methods other than me, and I didn’t know
how to explain it to members who didn’t know it. I felt in the phase directly before the campaign
as if I was not putting them into practice.
3. Lessons learned
I found that one-on-one meetings and coachings had a big impact on team building. Attimes when the team didn’t seem to have a shared imagined goal, or when members weremoving in opposite directions, we were able to manage the problem and right our path throughone-on-ones. When asked, “I want to open an LGBT coming of age in my area as well, but how
do I find people who have the skills? I don’t know how to find teammates”, I replied “I didn’t look
for skills, but look for the people who shared where society should go and the values.”
Before participating in Changemakers Academy’s workshop, I wavered, thinking “I want
act in some way, but I don’t know what to do”, “I don’t know if I have that kind of strength”, butwhile reading the CO text before the workshop, I gained courage and came to think, “I too may
be able to do something to change society.” During the workshop, I was able to repeatedlyreflect on my interests and make it crystalized, so that helped me to initiate this campaign.

～​Writer’s profile​～ ​Rina Matsugawa
Born in Okinawa in 1986, raised in Ishigaki. Studied Okinawan
history as a student. Developed a passion for the musical“Rent”. A textbook problem arose during her graduate schooldays in Ishigaki, and she gathered volunteers for, planned, andheld a screening party of the film “Watashi wo ikiru” (​Living “Myself”)​. Upon moving to Tokyo
after graduation, gained experience in corporate work, part-time employment, and specialeducation. During that time, she performed a self-written short one-person play, “Watashi toWatashi no karada tono kyori” (“The distance between me and my body”) with her friend. She
currently works as a temporary staff member at a children’s wellness center. She is recently
struggling under the sabotage of her home refrigerator.