A Perth drag queen used her musical performance at an event for the Tokyo Olympics to protest Japan’s LGBT+ laws.
Scarlet Skylar Rae was performing at the Kansai Music Conference, an international music industry conference based in the city of Osaka, Japan.
The event will be featured within the wider Tokyo Olympics programme.
During her performance, Scarlet highlighted the ongoing campaign to legalise same-sex marriage in Japan prior to the Olympics.
As part of the protest, Scarlet performed an acoustic show of her songs ‘Pride’, ‘Come on you Saints’ and ‘Same old me’ in front of decorated Japanese flags which read “Japan has no gay marriage”, “Japan has no laws against LGBT employment discrimination” and “same-sex couples are not allowed to adopt in Japan”.
In addition to this, Scarlet also taped “LGBT RIGHTS NOW JAPAN” on to her guitar.
Scarlet’s protest follows a recent report from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development which rated Japan second last for “laws supporting LGBT inclusiveness” in developed countries.
Her performance was also in protest of the Tokyo Olympics enforcing rule 50: “No kind of demonstration or political, religious or racial propaganda is permitted in any Olympic sites, venues or other areas”.
Japan is currently the only G7 nation not to recognise same-sex marriage, and a court in the country recently ruled that the ban was unconstitutional.
A request for damages by three same-sex couples was rejected by the Japanese court, but the overall judgement was seen as a victory for the campaign to change the law.
In the past few months, the Japanese LGBTQ+ movement has had great progress with the Japan Alliance for LGBT Legislation (J-ALL) submitting a petition with over 100,000 signatures to the Japanese Parliament to introduce the ‘LGBT Equality Act’.
However, the new proposed ‘LGBT Equality Act’ is also currently being protested, as after a parliamentary consultation, the reviewed proposal now only requires the government to “promote understanding of LGBT people” and “fails to include protections for LGBT+ people from discrimination”.
Scarlet said: “With the current LGBTQ+ rights situation in Japan, I didn’t want to be silent.
“I feel as a fellow member of the LGBTQ+ community I have a responsibility to use this platform I have been given by being invited to perform at the Kansai Music Conference to call attention to the incredible work the Japanese LGBTQ+ community is doing to protest its governments anti LGBTQ+ Laws.
“With the focus of the world on the Tokyo Olympics, I feel we all need to draw attention to the inequalities that exist within Japan and direct as many people as possible to sign the petitions to gain equal rights and support the Japanese LGBTQ+ community in their struggle.
“I have only highlighted some of the inequalities that exist in Japan and encourage everyone else to do their own research.
“I fully recommend that everyone reads reports from organisations such as Stonewall, Amnesty and the Human Rights Watch.
“I think we all want the Japanese Government to live up to the Olympic Charter which bans ‘discrimination of any kind’, including on grounds of sexual orientation.”
