Civil rights cases

I got to one movie in the Cinetopia Film Festival. I seriously considered a second, but decided my schedule was too full. There were a couple other films that looked interesting but conflicted with more important events in my schedule.

The film I saw was Of Love and Law. It is a documentary about a gay couple in Japan, both of whom are lawyers. We see a bit of their life and love. The mother of one of them was originally reluctant and now embraces their relationship and works at their law firm.

Most of the film is about some of their legal cases. We don’t see gay rights cases, instead we see some civil rights cases. There is the teacher who refused to stand during the national anthem. At the end of the movie her case is not resolved and she has moved to Ireland with a new husband. There is the woman who makes plush toys, not of dogs or bears but of vaginas. She was charged with public obscenity. Her position is a part of her body should not be declared obscene. The final ruling was that her toys differed sufficiently from the real thing that they were not obscene. Alas, a part of her body still is.

There were also two cases of unregistered people. In Japan, an infant isn’t registered (isn’t given a birth certificate) if the parents don’t apply as a couple. This mostly affects children whose parents divorce during the pregnancy. As in the US, unregistered people have a much harder time going to college and getting a job. By the end of the film one of the cases is resolved – the father was tracked down and, faced with a bit of pressure, decided it was wise to admit paternity.

In the US, 80% of the children without parents are in foster families. In Japan, 80% of these children are in orphanages. When an orphanage closed these two young lawyers invite a young man (probably 17 years old) to live with them until he can be on his own. Towards the end of the film this young man tells of a time with a girlfriend. He said he had been staying with a gay couple. The girl was surprised, and perhaps a bit shocked. He responded by saying it’s no big deal, you shouldn’t be shocked.

The two lawyers decide they should go through the process of being foster parents. At the end of the film we are told they were the first gay couple in Osaka to be licensed as foster parents.