A transgender woman was mocked and outed without her consent on live TV
A transgender woman was outed and mocked without her consent on a Japanese television show (Pexels)
A television station in Japan has issued an apology to a transgender woman after they outed and mocked her on television without her consent.
The woman was featured on television show Shumatsu Chigumaya Kazoku, which translates as ‘Weekend Yamaguchi Family’ on Television Yamaguchi Broadcasting Systems earlier this month.
“[The crew] didn’t give me any explanation beforehand, and I never thought my gender would be exposed in such a way,” the Japanese woman said.
She was interviewed for a segment in which a presenter speaks to people who are “unusual” in public. She was approached while she was changing the oil in her car, The Asahi Shimbun reports.
The transgender woman was asked: ‘Are you often told that you are unusual?’
The presenter approached her and asked her: “Are you a woman?”
“Are you often told that you are unusual?” the presenter continued.
A voice over then cut in and said that the woman had “a secret”. Following a commercial break, the presenter was shown interviewing a relative of the transgender woman.
They went out [of] their way to reveal that I am a man without confirming it with me.
“Is the woman really a man?” the presenter reportedly asked the bemused relative. “I’m so surprised.”
They then showed a photo of the woman on-screen with a caption that said: “Unusual! A man who looks like a woman.”
The woman felt ‘hopeless’ after the segment was aired.
“They went out [of] their way to reveal that I am a man without confirming it with me,” the woman said.
“I felt hopeless for a while thinking about what would happen if my colleagues and clients saw the program when it was aired.”
She is now asking that the show’s producers explain their actions. An official with the station said they would be apologising to the woman personally.
“The content requires extreme caution before broadcasting, and we have taken the things that the person has pointed out seriously,” Yasushi Ikeda, a director with the station said.
“[The crew] thought the person was a woman when they interviewed her and have regretted not confirming with her if she would be OK with the segment being aired. The captioning was not appropriate, either.”
