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Tokyo issues certificates to recognize same-sex partnerships
By Matt Bernardini
Nov. 1 (UPI) -- Tokyo began issuing certificates recognizing same-sex couples on Tuesday, allowing them to be treated as married couples for certain public services.
While Japan does not legally recognize same-sex marriage, the certificate process is a step towards marriage equality. Japan is the only Group of Seven country that does not nationally recognize same-sex marriage.
Under the so-called Tokyo Partnership Oath System, couples will be able to, for instance, apply for municipal housing and include their children's names on their partnership certificates.
"The launch of the system must drive social change," Soyoka Yamamoto, who heads activist group Partnership Act for Tokyo, said at a press conference. "Let this system serve as a catalyst to spearhead efforts to achieve a society where sexual minorities are equally protected."
Polling has shown that a majority of Japanese citizens support gay marriage.
According to a survey conducted in 2021 by Japan's public broadcaster NHK, 57% were in favor, while just 37% were against.
Fumino Sugiyama, a co-chair of Tokyo Rainbow Pride, which organizes the capital's yearly LGBTQ pride events told Kyodo News that there was still more work to do.
"One is the freedom to marry, the other is a ban on discrimination and the third is easing the conditions required for gender reassignment," Sugiyama said.
Japan may be the most conservative country in the G7, nevertheless, it is marching relentlessly on toward Sodom with absolutely no fear of God.
Trans paedophile stayed alongside vulnerable women & kids at refuge
for 71 days after duping staff
Thomas Godfrey
20:59, 4 Nov 2022, Updated: 21:51, 4 Nov 2022
A TRANSGENDER paedophile duped staff into letting her stay for 71 days at a domestic violence refuge for vulnerable women and children.
Katie Dolatowski, 22, used an alias to hide her crimes and get into the Leeds Women’s Aid refuge, which is visited regularly by Spice Girl and domestic abuse campaigner Mel B.
Transgender paedophile Katie Dolatowski, 22, duped staff into letting her stay for 71cdays at a domestic violence refuge for vulnerable women and children. The Leeds refuge is visited regularly by Spice Girl and domestic abuse campaigner Mel BCredit: Glen Minikin
Her disturbing past came to light only ten weeks later in September when managers are understood immediately to have called police.
The predator — who sexually assaulted a girl of ten in a supermarket toilet and secretly filmed another child — was taken into custody.
One refuge guest, a mum of three, told The Sun: “It’s horrific. As a victim of sexual abuse myself, the whole thing is triggering. I came here with my kids because I thought it was a safe place and to find out there was a paedophile living a few doors away for months is just horrendous.
“I saw her several times hanging around where the prams are parked, she is tall and skinny with long brown hair and always wore a blue surgical mask. The whole thing makes my skin crawl.”
Dolatowski’s offending dates back to the supermarket incidents in Scotland in 2018 and she has been in court several times since.
But she was said to have official documents supporting the alias she used to deceive staff at the refuge in Leeds. It is not known what Dolatowski told managers to convince them she was a victim of abuse.
She stayed in the refuge’s separate accommodation for trans survivors. There is a shared garden.
Nik Peasgood, chief executive of Leeds Women’s Aid, said of the breach: “We are appalled that someone with such crimes could come to a women’s refuge using a different identity.
“We are aware a criminal using authenticated identification could access any housing provider’s services and we are not unique in being manipulated in this way.”
Farah Nazeer, chief executive at Women’s Aid, added: “This situation is a priority for us, alongside supporting our federation of local domestic abuse services.”
She added that the charity was exploring additional security mechanisms for the national federation in light of the incident.
Dolatowski was 18 when she targeted the girl of ten in the toilets of a Morrisons supermarket in Kircaldy, Fife. She ordered the child to remove her trousers and threatened to stab her — but the girl punched her and fled.
It came a month after Dolatowski was caught secretly filming a 12-year-old girl on the toilet in an Asda in Dunfermline.
She avoided jail but there was anger at the time when it emerged she was placed in a woman-only hostel while self-identifying as female.
Her case is likely to reignite the debate around who can use women-only spaces such as refuges.
It also brings into focus Scotland’s controversial proposals to make gender self-identity easier.
Hopefully, this will bring to light the madness of self-identifying as the opposite sex. But I doubt it. Madness is madness!
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