Atama Ga Gay-jin! Part 1

Dear Rachel Maddow,

I think you made me gay.

Or, at least, you helped me figure it out. I was in middle school when Air America started up. I couldn't help "noticing" your picture whenever a bus came by. I came up with all kinds of reasons as to why I felt this way -- all except the real one, of course. It even got to the point where I refused to look at any ad on a New York City bus. But as the years passed, the discomfort I felt when I saw the ads gradually turned into a kind of pride. As I came to accept myself, your image was a representation of what I hoped to become: someone who was not afraid to be herself and let others know it.

I'm writing to you now because I'm spending the semester in Japan, which isn't exactly known for its thriving LGBTQ community. In a country where the only out celebrities (as far as I can tell) are drag queens and limp-wristed cartoons, I can't imagine how hard it is in Japan for someone in the process of coming out. Shortly after I arrived I saw two 13-year-old girls canoodling on the train. They looked so defensive and scared, I just wanted to give them a hug. Would things be better for them if they had a positive role model to look to?

I'm sure you received thousands of e-mails a day saying this, so here's one more to ad to the pile: thank you for being you -- the more visibility the LGBTQ community has, the better it is for everyone.

Sincerely,

Rachel

I've been meaning to write this e-mail for the past two months and, yes, I just sent it to my [latest TV] girlfriend because I am a dork. I hope it's not too stalker-ish. I felt this more acutely when I first got here; now I'm mostly over it but I will never, ever, ever underestimate the importance of groups like SAGA or QDG again (not that I did before; but now I really appreciate their existence. Even though so many queer folks at Haverford choose [i]not[/i] to participate in these clubs, the fact that we have a formal way to meet each other is invaluable.)

As for the girls on the train, man, were they cute. I'm sure the quadruple take I did when I saw them didn't help them feel any more comfortable, though. But it was for good reason: at the end of the summer, hot pink was definitely the "in" color for guys, so at first I wasn't sure what kind of couple it was I was looking at. Furthermore, PDA almost never ever happens in Japan (unless you're with a foreigner.) But this was definitely not platonic handholding/arm-around-shouldering/resting-head-on-shouldering. I wish I had something to say to them, but the fact that they found each other at such a young age shows their strength.

I [i]think[/i] I've also met a couple at Nanzan. Again, I can't tell because I don't understand how these people express their affection (like in the US, it's not so uncommon for female friends to hold hands.) Nor do they like to touch each other in general -- the other day my host dad was sleeping on the couch and the phone rang. Instead of shaking him by the shoulder, my host sister patted the couch next to him to get his attention. However, I'm pretty sure touching someone else's thigh means that you're more than friends with them, regardless of your culture. Also, one of them has both women and men checked off in her "interested in" section on Facebook. On the other hand, it also says she's single, so whatevs.

Here is a really interesting set of woman-on-the-street interviews from lesbian magazine Tokyo Wrestler (soooooo glad they have an English site).

As for the haps in Nagoya, according to this blog, there are over 50 gay bars in Nagoya. Interestingly enough, Shu's website doesn't say that it's a gay bar at all. But I plan to make it down there; either way, hanging out in a new bar could be fun.

I've also found a certain montly party that I plan on going to. Maybe I'll send them an e-mail and find out where some other places to go are.

In other news, I may or may not have been checking out a girl who was [i]actually[/i] hot (see my forthcoming treatise on the hotness of Japanese people), and I'm almost positive she gave me the once-over, too. Too bad I'll probably never see her again, since there are about 5000 students here.