Difficulties Japanese Gay Youth Encounter

Abstract

Abstract This feature is a collection of brief essays recently written by Japanese and Chinese gay youth, followed by commentary from several leading educators and scholars. Akihiko Komiya's “Difficulties Japanese Gay Youth Encounter” provides excerpts from the stories of six gay youth and their everyday lives, based on their letters in Buddy, a magazine for Japanese gay men. These vignettes are followed with Komiya's brief commentary, also excerpted and translated from Japanese, which first appeared in Homosexuality and Other Sexualities. Rodge Q. Farm's “Growing up Gay in China” is a single essay based on his experiences during the 1980s and returning to China after three years in a U. S. graduate school. Here Fann documents the impact of the Internet on Chinese gay youth and reflects on his experiences as a high school and college student during an era of a paucity of information and a difficult political-economic context. In today's China, he argues, teachers and role models could play a more important role to introduce a healthy diverse sexual world while breaking “propagandistic uniformity.” Several noted scholars and educators offer their insights following their reading of these various texts. These commentaries are followed with brief comments by the two principal authors.