#like it's kinda neutral tbh but also the focus on insurance companies and A-san's dismay

[blackamite]

I cant trust this site to be wholly unbiased. Do you feel like the original japanese report was translated accurately here? womenarehuman com/female-with-male-identity-upset-at-being-treated-as-male-by-insurance-companies/

I'd say the translations were correct, but I do feel they spun it a bit unfairly. Admittedly the original also shares the title about insurance rates, but it mainly isn't really about that. I'll just share what I got from it. TLDR at the end.

'A-san' transitioned medically in the 90s due to gender dysphoria, but had no intention of changing legally. This was likely due to the fact that legal transition was quite difficult, apparently even expecting you to send pictures of your genitals and being very psychologically taxing. Even when transgender stuff started to take off more and get easier in 2004, she didn't do anything.

The reason she finally changed gender legally was because of the Koseki (family register), which is a big thing the article is complaining about. Basically Japan has a huge registry of all the families and their relation to each other and I've heard it's a big pain to deal with (especially in the case of foreign marriages, adoptions etc.). In this case, it does not grant any type of bond to two women (unlike het marriage), so in order to have their lesbian relationship recognized, A-san's partner pushed her to petition for the gender change.

Due to the Koseki being frustrating, there was a lot of unnecessary difficulty and phone calls and lawyers getting involved, but she made it through in the end, only for the Koseki to record it in strange nonsensical ways and the insurance companies not giving her the sex-specific treatment that she needs.

The thing that gets me is that she is aware of her female body and isn't trying to deny that. The whole article is actually written from the perspective of her friend who is angry for her, so it isn't even A-san complaining as far as I can tell. This is why I disagree with the spin on the original article - they seem to make it out like A-san is being unreasonable here, when she really just wanted to get married and have treatment for her menopausal disorders, and would face even more difficulty going back now that she knows. Honestly I'd be pretty frustrated at everything if that was me too.

Finally, the article ends talking more about the Koseki, saying it creates a heirarchy that devalues women while erasing sexual minorities and individuality. This criticism of the japanese family registry seems to be the core conclusion of the article - the author says:

"While accepting my real body, I want the freedom to live out my own sexuality with dignity. That is why I want to get to the bottom of what tries to steal my individuality. To look those who discriminate against women and sexual minorities, and make no mistake."

TL,DR: Imo, the english article made A-san seem like a petulant gendie when she didn't really do anything wrong and the system admittedly sucked. Also, the person complaining was actually the author of the japanese article (A-san's friend), who had additional valid reasons to criticize the japanese system.