Postcards From the Rim

I just received a postcard from my friend Kanako Otsuji who is the first openly out lesbian (or gay person at all) elected official in Japan. She is member if the Osaka Prefectural Assembly which is esentially like an American state legislature. [Notice how Americans always want to Americanize everything.]

Kanako came to the U.S. in June and came to our office to talk about lessons from here she might apply to their more nascent LGBT movement and vice versa. We were able to set up a roundtable meeting for her with representatives of five or six LGBT organizations. I know we learned a lot and hope she did as well. We were also able to facilitate a meeting between Assemblywoman Otsuji and Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) who is the first openly out lesbian in the U.S. Congress. The Congresswoman has been a wonderful friend to transgender people and NCTE.