Japan Press Weekly

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2021 May 26 - June 1 [POLITICS]

LDP puts off approval on LGBT equality bill

The Liberal Democratic Party on May 28 put off approving an LGBT equality bill after failing to persuade the party's LGBT-rights deniers, deciding not to submit the bill to the current Diet session.

Cross-party Dietmembers, including several LDP lawmakers, drafted this bill, agreeing to include the passage, "Discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity is unacceptable," in the bill's basic principle.

However, some LDP legislators in an inner-party meeting fiercely opposed the bill. They one after another made discriminatory remarks such as LGBT people "interfere with the need for the conservation of species" and these people are "morally unacceptable".

Japanese Communist Party Diet Policy Commission Chair Tamura Tomoko (House of Councilors), who took part in the multipartisan bill-making process, said, "Irrespective of gender identity and sexual orientation, fundamental human rights should be guaranteed. This is an internationally-accepted norm." She added, "Putting on display their unwillingness to uphold this norm, the LDP invites international criticism."

Past related article:
> LDP Dietmembers make discriminatory remarks about LGBT people [May 22 & 23, 2021]
> JCP approves CDPJ/LDP-drafted amendments to LGBT bill [May 15, 2021]