Forced surgery before ‘I do’

Still stigmatised: The Tokyo Rainbow Pride parade celebrating the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community in Tokyo's Shibuya district in May, 2017. Japan, however, still requires that transgender people be sterilised to have their gender changed on official documents. - AP

FOR Tacaquito Usui to marry his partner, Japanese law first requires him to undergo sterilisation surgery and be diagnosed with a mental disorder because he is transgender. Usui, who lives with his partner and stepson after coming out as trans five years ago, lost a three-year legal bid to change the rules in January.

“If I don’t get operated on, I cannot change sex and cannot get married,” said the 45-year-old farmer from western Japan’s rural Okayama prefecture.