April 27, 2016　=========
☆ sexual orientation 性的指向
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Someone’s “sexual orientation” is whether they are sexually attracted to people of the same sex, people of the opposite sex, or both. I recently read a book by an Australian author, Tim Conigrave, called Holding the Man, it was his life story, growing up gay in Melbourne, meeting the love of his life (a man), and then sadly, during the 1990’s just after finishing this memoir, he died of Aids, aged 34. His partner had died a few years earlier of cancer (aged 32).
When he was young (in the 1960’s and 1970’s) he attended Catholic school, where he met his partner. They were together for 15 years! But because of their sexual orientation, their parents never acknowledged their relationship and even tried to stop it from happening. It was an interesting story, and very sad, not just because they both died so young, but because they had to fight so hard to be together and they were never able to get married just because of their sexual orientation.
It’s still hard in Australia not to be “normal” but thankfully, it is much more acceptable to have a different sexual orientation these days that it was 20 years ago. How about in Japan? Are things changing there too?
Bye,
Chris