The official logo of Pride Hose Tokyo | Photo: Twitter/Pride House Tokyo/Asao Tokolo
The 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics will host an LGBTI Pride House.
Pride House Tokyo is the brainchild of 28 of Japan’s LGBTI organizations and individual activists.
The Pride House is designed to offer a space where athletes and fans can exchange information and insights about the LGBTI community during two of the world’s premier sporting events.
Gon Matsunaka, the founder and president of LGBTI support group Good Aging Yell, expressed hope that the major sporting events would be an ideal opportunity to help spread awareness of the LGBTI community, The Japan Times reported.
‘Sports has the power to change the future,’ Matsunaka said at a press conference. ‘We want to work closely with the sports world to make diversity something that’s positive.’
Pride House Tokyo will be set up during the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics as a place to exchange and distribute information about lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. We are aiming to update this Pride House for LGBT youth to visit and come together after 2020. pic.twitter.com/bIL7MntHau
— Pride House Tokyo (@PrideHouseTokyo) 8 September 2018
Also at the press conference was Fumino Sugiyama, a transgender man and LGBTI activist who had represented Japan as a female fencer prior to undergoing gender confirmation surgery.
Sugiyama spoke about the difficulties LGBTI athletes have with coming out, and that it is common for many athletes to remain closeted to avoid potentially negative repercussions.
‘I hope everyone will accept other people’s individuality and differences, and work together with the power of sports to cooperate with each other and raise momentum,’ Sugiyama said.
オリンピックに向けたLGBTの拠点「プライドハウス東京」設立へhttps://t.co/juzBQNPbVc
— ジェンクシー (@genxy_net) 7 September 2018
Increasingly popular
Matsunaka says that the idea of having a space for LGBTI attendees began at the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
Since then ‘Pride Houses’ have become an increasingly common and popular sight at major sporting events.
Earlier this year, a Pride House was organized in St. Petersberg for the 2018 Russia World Cup, though this was not in an official capacity.
The logo for Pride House Tokyo was designed by artist Asao Tokolo, who also designed the checkered official logos for the 2020 Olympics.
While the Pride House Tokyo is currently being planned as a temporary, the organizers are hoping it will become a permanent fixture for any sporting events to take place in Japan.
