LGBTQ+ rights in Japan and among the Navajo tribe in the USA

Japan’s Supreme Court has ruled that a legal clause requiring someone to undergo sterilisation surgery if they want to have their gender reassigned legally is unconstitutional. It is the 2003 law, according to which gender recognition in family registers and other official documents is possible after the removal of reproductive organs, which guarantees infertility. The court’s decision coincided with the growing awareness of LGBTQ+ rights in Japanese society. Previously, several international organisations, including the European Court of Human Rights, the United Nations and the World Professional Association for Transgender Health, stated that the sterilisation requirement for gender reassignment is discriminatory and violates human rights.

Although same-sex marriage has been legal in 50 states since a 2015 U.S. Supreme Court ruling, it remains banned in the Navajo Nation, the nation’s most prominent indigenous reservation. As a sovereign nation, the Navajo are not subject to decisions by the U.S. Supreme Court. However, the Navajo Tribal Council is considering changing the legislation to provide equal rights for people in same-sex relationships during hospital visits and property matters. Native researchers say it would be a return to Navajo traditions that recognised multiple genders and sexualities. It was suppressed and stigmatised after Europeans arrived on the American continent. Currently, 10 of 574 tribes prohibit same-sex marriage. Meanwhile, about 50 allow or accept same-sex relationships, including the Cherokee Nation, the second-largest tribe in the United States.