U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel has said it is important to accept people of different sexual orientation and will attend Sunday's Rainbow Parade in Tokyo to drive home the point.
The ambassador, who has also worked to promote marriage equality in his own country, said that gays and lesbians should be acknowledged as part of an inclusive society.
"Our goal is building a society where everybody feels valued, everybody feels like they count, everybody feels like they can be a responsible member of the community," he said, as the world faces other issues such as Russia's invasion of Ukraine and income inequality.
"You have two people who love each other, two people who are ready to make a commitment to create a home of love," he told Kyodo News on Friday. "I think that is a very traditional value. It's not radical."
Emanuel said there are many people in the LGBTQ community who are family members and contribute to society in various roles, noting that "sexual orientation is just part of their identity."
By speaking at the march as an ambassador, Emanuel said he wants to stress what the U.S. values -- "the values of inclusion, and creating a larger family and a sense of community. Everyone has something to contribute."
Japan has not permitted marriage equality yet, but more than 140 municipal governments have introduced a system to recognize same-sex partnerships to reverse discrimination on issues such as social benefits.
Emanuel welcomed this, saying that although the pace is different than in the United States, the trajectory toward same-sex recognition and equality is the same.
Similar to the United States, he expects there will be a bottom-up change in politics, with local governments taking the first step toward same-sex recognition.
"Japan is at the stage of doing that bottom-up political change...and it will be felt nationally," he said.
While the envoy was mayor of Chicago, he pushed to legalize same-sex marriage in the state of Illinois in 2013. It became the law of the land when the Supreme Court ruled it a constitutional right in 2015.
Gay rights are not only a professional matter to him, but also personal. The former congressman from Illinois and former President Barack Obama's White House chief of staff had a cousin who was gay. His best man when he married his wife Amy in 1994 was also gay.
"I envision a day in which we don't talk about gay marriage and straight marriage," he said. "There's marriage. And that's sufficient."
Emanuel's defense of gay rights overseas is in line with President Joe Biden's fierce support for the LGBTQ community.
On his first day as president in January last year, Biden signed an executive order protecting LGBTQ people against discrimination in schools, health care, the workplace and other sectors.
A new State Department post of Special Envoy to Advance the Human Rights of LGBTQI+ Persons was also created.
