Protesters demand Mio Sugita apologise for anti-LGBT comments
Mio Sugita stands by her homophobic comments that same-sex couples are “unproductive.” (Facebook)
In a video released on social media on Tuesday (April 16) angry protesters can be seen surrounding Japan’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) lawmaker Mio Sugita after she called the LGBT+ community “unproductive” in a magazine last year.
The video released on Twitter shows protesters shouting behind Mio Sugita while she was campaigning on behalf of a far-right politician running for election in the Suginami City Assembly. One protester can be seen holding a placard with Sugita’s face crossed out in red.
Responding to the protest in the almost two-minute long video Sugita said “LGBT+ [issues] are a bad use of taxes.”
“I will not apologise because I am not discriminating,” she added.
LGBT+ policies are a waste of resources, says Mio Sugita
In a four-page article titled “Support for LGBT is too much” for conservative Japanese magazine Shincho 45, Sugita criticised the media in the country for its coverage of LGBT+ issues.
“A society deprived of common sense and normalcy is destined to lose order and eventually collapse.”
— Mio Sugita
Sugita said the media are helping to promote to people who are “capable of enjoying normal romance and getting married…that they have an option of going homosexual, and as a result risk increasing (the number of) unhappy people.”
Sugita also argued that investing money in policies to improve the lives of same-sex couples would be a waste of resources. “These men and women don’t bear children — in other words, they are unproductive,” she explained.
Mio Sugita says the media are promoting same-sex relationships to people who would otherwise not be in one. (mio sugita/facebook)
“A society deprived of common sense and normalcy is destined to lose order and eventually collapse. I don’t want Japan to be a society like this,” she concludes in the article.
An ongoing battle
This is not the first time protesters have asked Sugita to apologise for her remarks. Last year, a petition was started by LGBT+ representatives demanding Sugita publicly retract her statements.
The petition garnered around 26,000 signatures over the course of a month. “What you are doing is bullying,” one signatory who has a transgender child commented.
In a statement in August last year the LDP voiced that Sugita’s views do not represent their own.
