Universal Declaration of Human Rights 70th Anniversary Award
My Category and Gender
Ichika Ogawa, Ninth Grade (third year of three grades)
Shiroishi Town Shiroishi Junior High School, Saga Prefecture
Because I am already grown up this has become rare, but when I was small, I was always mistaken
for a boy. People who met me for the first time often looked at me, tilted their head, and said, "Are
you a boy?" I always said no. The question certainly bored me, but I never felt anything negative
about being mistaken for a boy. I preferred something cool and never wanted to dress like a girl.
Above all, I always felt slightly awkward about the fact that I am a girl. I felt offended whenever my
grandmother told me, "You are a girl", and stopped wearing a skirt, or anything with the color pink onit.However, these are things that happened in the past. Now I do not dislike "girly stuff" as much as
before. One day I discovered the word "LGBT," it is a term to indicate sexual minorities and is the
acronymic combination of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender. Some people are sexually
attracted to people of the same sex, or to both sexes, and there are also people whose gender identity
is different from their biological sex. I was intrigued by the existence of these people. As I read many
stories about their difficulties and started to understand their suffering, I discovered that they suffer
from ordinary daily lives, or from unwitting words by others that do not really mean much. However,
that did not apply to me. Feeling a haze of awkwardness, I continued to search further until I
discovered "LGBTQ," the term that cannot be explained only by LGBT, and found the word "X
Gender." While I was reading articles about them, I recognized the moment that the uneasy feeling
inside me started to dissolve. X Gender indicates people who do not fully identify themselves either as
a male or a female. Their gender identities vary one by one, and are difficult to be defined. In my case,
I am asexual, someone who does not want to be a female, but does not want to be a male either. This
gender identity fits me best now. In the past, I may have given up and accepted that I am woman.
Recognizing that many aspects of myself match with the characteristics of X gender, I realized that I
have comrads and my gender identity is nothing strange. Now my mind is clear. I can finally identify
what kind of person I am.
However, I wonder whether there people who would accept a person like me, who is X gender and
LGBTQ? I believe the number is small. For many people, being normal is to be attracted to the
opposite sex and dressing according to their biological sex. This is not the case for us, which means
we will be judged as "not normal." To avoid prejudice and discrimination, we conceal our identities,
and this makes it a suffocating society for us to live in. This makes me want to scream. Who decided
what "normal" means? Who can determine what "normal" is? Why do I have to hide myself? When
we think about these questions, we realize that this world is full of unreasonable presumptions.
Nowadays LGBTQ has started to join the main stream. The awareness to LGBTQ is increasing
thanks to support organizations, the wide spread use of the term LGBT, and media coverage. I do not
say everyone must empathize with us, but I want everyone to understand us. I want people to
understand they are hurting us when they say things such as, "After all, you are a woman," "What use
is that of?" or, "Stay normal." We are all different. None of us is the same. And yet, we can help and
understand each other. Right now at this moment, some people are suffering because of the
psychological gap that cannot be filled. Some people cannot send an SOS signal because of the fear of
discrimination. We can help each other. I want people to say "It’s alright." If society blocks your
identity like a huge wall, I want you to ask for help, no matter how small your voice is. Your voice
will lead to the understanding and support towards sexual minorities. I want our society to understand
that being a sexual minority is not something peculiar or different, but is a natural form of personality
that vary from one individual to another.
It is said that one in 13 people can be identified as LGBTQ. LGBTQ is not unrelated to you. Even
someone close to you may be LGBTQ but they are not revealing it. To achieve a society where
everyone feels it is easy to live, I want society to stop requiring womanhood or manhood. I am
determined to try to understand myself more profoundly and to take actions in the future.