JAPAN - Oct 10, 1997
Three hundred lesbians and some drag queens marched through Tokyo's popular Shibuya district on Oct. 10, 1997 in Japan's first dyke march. The women said they could not resist turning Taiku No Hi, the National Sports Day, into Daiku No Hi -- Dyke Day. The marchers banged on drums and blew whistles as the sound system blasted out k.d.lang. Some marchers wore dark-blue suits and others wore rainbow flags. "The lesbian community here is hardly visible," said spokeswoman Maria Miho Hiramatsu. "The problem with the image of lesbianism in Japan is that it is connected with pornography produced according to male ideas of what women are, which is very different from women's ideas of what women are." |
