Disabled people stage protest against anti-LGBT Japanese MP
Sugita said gay relationships would lead the collapse of society (mio sugita/facebook)
Disabled people have come out to protest against an anti-LGBT Japanese MP, who said gay and lesbian couples are unproductive because they can’t have children.
According to KYODO news agency, the group took offence to the comments because it also affects people who can’t have children due to illness or disability.
During a press conference at the health and welfare ministry in Tokyo, the group gathered to explain their protest.
“I cannot have children because of the effects of [my] medication, but I don’t believe that human value is decided by the fact of whether one can have children or not,” said Hiroko Uchiyama, 43, of Hachioji in western Tokyo, who suffers from the complications of an illness.
The Japanese MP Mio Sugita, a member of the ruling party – the Liberal Democratic Party – wrote an article which said: “Can spending taxpayers’ money on LGBT couples gain approval? They don’t make children. In other words, they lack “productivity.”
According to the news agency, the LDP Party posted a message on its website which condemned the views of Sugita, and said the views did not conform with its views on LGBT people.
However, it’s not the first time a Japanese MP from the LDP has been outspoken with homophobic comments.
Earlier in August a Japanese politician sparked controversy by saying that marriage equality would destroy his country.
Sugita with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe (mio sugita/facebook)
Tom Tanigawa, a member of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) who sits in the House of Representatives, also said that legalising same-sex unions was unnecessary, because being gay is “a hobby.”
Sugita has also previously caused controversy, when she wrote that gay relationships would lead to the destruction of society.
As well as composing that inflammatory opinion piece, entitled “The level of support for ‘LGBT’ is too high,” Sugita has also appeared on TV to speak out against LGBT education, as reported by Kotaku.
