英米　２年
Professor Andrea Carlson, thank you very much for your very interesting presentation today. People live with different backgrounds and personalities. This diversity makes our world a wonderful place to live in, but some of us are struggling with our personalities and backgrounds. Through this presentation, I realized that learning more about mental health can not only help yourself, but also help others. understanding of LGBTQ+ people is gradually advancing around the world, but in Japan, understanding of these people is still lagging behind, for example, they do not recognize same-sex marriage. In order to expand the understanding of LGBTQ+ people, it is important for us to learn more about mental health and to pass on to future generations that they are normal people, not different from other people.

英米　２年
Today’s presentation was very important and will be helpful for all students. I was glad to learn her lessons. The LGBTQ+ issue is very difficult actually. As Dr. Carlson mentioned, because of a lack of acceptance, understanding and inclusion, there are still discriminations or stigmatizations. Then a lot of children and young people who are diverse in some way might experience mental health problems. That is very cruel. We should not neglect them and should be an ally. I got a key point of how to do so today. It is that learning about them, that diversity is the best way. I would like to keep it in my mind. Also, at the time we shared the opinions about Juna in our breakout discussion, I was impressed with one student’s idea. It is writing a letter to express herself to her parents. Actually, I think telling about it directly is very difficult. So, using a letter is a really fantastic way. In this way, through today’s class, I could know that being sensitive and learning about diversity can help someone who is stressed mentally.

英米　２年
Thank you for the helpful presentation. I think the topic “diversity” is important to me because I have a diverse background. I am half Japanese and half Korean, and I have experienced racial discrimination when I was a junior high school student. Classmates who know my background said that they did not want to make friends with Korean, which made me shocked. At that time, I could not consult with others, and I tended to be absent from school due to it. Also, I was surprised that the suicide rate between 2010 and 2014 was 2.46 times higher for Zainichi Korean women of all ages than for their Japanese peers. My mother is Zainichi Korean, and I often heard that she does not live so easily because of the discrimination in the workplace. Therefore, I learned that it is vital for us to learn about diversity and mental health. I think we should reflect upon ourselves and change our behaviors.

英米　３年
Thank you very much for this thoughtful talk of today. I myself grew up in a multicultural family, being raised by Brazilian immigrants in Japan. My experience growing up was to have the privilege to attend a Brazilian international school and never get to know the Japanese side of Japan, which was divided by a sort of social barrier until before the economic recession of 2009. After this turning year, however, my life turned 180 degrees with having to learn the language and the culture at a Japanese school, which were as discriminatory and strict as me and my friends would imagine back at my international school times. This generates a question in my head regarding acceptance. After all, at the international school we did not discriminate against each other even though we looked quite different and spoke in different accents. Some students were more fluent at Portuguese than others depending on whether they attended Japanese school for half period or not and everyone looked different depending on their ancestry. But when it comes to Japanese school, people are all expected to look the same and act the same most of the time and that is simply a thing I will never get. At international school being different was a normal thing to be, and therefore accepting another different mate was a thing that came from the heart, which is a simple thing that I somehow find it hard to do in Japanese society. However, as much as I keep on wondering why we live in such a restrictive society, I cannot help but think that I should feel lucky that people are at least willing to actively talk about this issue, at least from the last couple of years. I cannot say much from other perspectives such as the LGBTQ+ community as the only members I know live in foreign nations, but as many demonstrations from this specific community have shown, ‘talking’ must be the key to change. I personally am quite reluctant to talk on the inclusion related topics introduced in this presentation as I hate to think that I look like a loser pitying for care, but this talk has given me another perspective on the issue. It has opened my eyes to a side that does not include guilty feelings of trapping people to do what is right, but educating and guiding them to see the other side of their conservative behaviours. Starting now, I must confess I have been stressed by all the pressure that falls into my shoulders for being an immigrant daughter. Growing up poor, you are expected to be excellent at school or otherwise you are not worthy the education you are getting, and that pressure builds up more and more as the years go by. If there is anything we can do to make things better for the othered people, it is time to do so. It is as simple as making friends in kindergarten, remember the time you had no prejudice in your mind and forget about what society says. Just go talk to them, they will not bite.

フランス　１年
Today’s topic was very interesting for me. I was impressed by the phrase “there is no other”. I think it’s true that we think of LGBTQ+ people or multicultural people as others, and therefore discrimination or bulling happens. However, we should think of them as a human, that we are not different, and that they are not others. From today’s talk, I learned that I should be a good counselor, while accepting them as normal people who is not a special one. Actually, I have a friend who is biologically a female, but she lives as a male. When we met for the first time, she looked like a female. But being a friend of her, her appearance gradually changed to a male. She didn’t consult me about her sexuality, but I just didn’t ask her anything, and I just treated her as herself as her appearance changed. Remembering about her, I think about being a counselor as mentioned in class is good way to help them. But at the same time, not to ask them is also important thing to do not to hurt them.

中国　２年
First of all, I would like to say that I really appreciate Dr. Andrea Carlson’s wonderful lecture. In my opinion, what is the most important in realizing about diversity is to know the present circumstances regarding the problems of minorities. I think today more and more schools in Japan have a class in which students can learn the fact of prejudice, discrimination and other serious problems happening in the country and around the world, and thus the number of people who can be considered as an ally is increasing. We all need even more chances to take a class about diversity. I am sure that the more opportunities we get, the more possible it is for us to smash stigma.

看護　１年
I think that one of the most important things to support someone who has mental health problems is to be sensitive as Andrea mentioned. Especially, when they are LGBTQ+ people, we should be careful of outing. Outing means the act of exposing an individual’s sexual orientation or gender identity. It can be linked to suicide. It is dangerous, however, and the risk of outing has increased because of covid-19. According to one of the groups supporting LGBTQ+ people, many LGBTQ+ people in Japan worry that catching the coronavirus could mean their sexual orientation is revealed against their will as authorities investigate infection routes. Another survey also showed that they worry about whether they or their partner will be able to receive important medical information that hospitals provide to family members if one of them becomes infected with the coronavirus. I think it is difficult for the government and health centers to grasp these individuals’ situation and deal with them because they have so many works today. But outing relates to people’s lives. So, they, of course, should not treat people’s sexual orientations so lightly.

外国語学部
Ms. Andrea talked about her specialized field, LGBT issues. She studies about transgender people in Japan where people don’t understand well about it. In Japan, we rarely interact with transgender people compared to foreign countries, like the Philippines, the United Kingdom, France, Australia, and so on. Therefore, people don’t have much understanding about LGBT issues. Some people even don’t know about the word LGBT. For me, I came to listen to the word since I entered the university. As people don’t know about LGBT, they tend to think it’s strange when they see transgender men and women. Especially when it comes to young people like elementary school students and junior high school students, they may stare at them or make fun of them. And this causes damage to them. Like this, they feel stress, anxiety, some of them get depressed and commit suicide. The other day, I researched about Belgium and learned that a transgender woman became a deputy prime minister for the first time and, in Belgium, an LGBT festival called "Pride" is held every year! Compared to these countries, Japan is pretty much behind in this field, but some actions are taking. Some communities and events relate to LGBT. People and society should understand about LGBT, their feeling and respect to its differences.

外国語学部
Thank you so much for your attentive lecture, Andrea sensei. I was able to have a very good time because it was the first time for me to learn deeply about mental health support. Although I knew what LGBTQ+ is and some information about it from the mass media, I had never thought thoughtfully about how I should behave towards LGBTQ+ people. I was surprised to know that there are more people having mental health problems than I expected. Also, the fact the Japanese government does not yet have laws related to culturally diversity was astonishing. I sometimes feel angry with Japanese bureaucrats because they seem slow to act, especially to those who are in a weak position. We need to try to make changes. In order to do that, as you mentioned, learning about diversity and mental health are a must. Japan is already in a transition of a new era, but we should make the passage much faster. I will try to support them, and then want to smash stigma completely.

留学生
It is not easy feeling different. It is not easy to see how other people point at us and make many comments about how we look, how we dress, how we act, or what we like. The LGBTQ+ community goes through this daily, and many of them don’t know how to deal with the feelings that may emerge when being in these scenarios. In today’s presentation, Andrea Carlson talked about collaborating for mental health support, especially with people who may be multicultural, and people who are part of the LGBTQ+ community. Andrea Carlson is a person that has a multicultural family that is spread around all the world. She understands how one can feel in an unfamiliar place. She mentions that children and young people who are diverse may be stressed due the discrimination they face. Many times, they are bullied and harassed just because they have a different sexual orientation, have another cultural background, or even just by liking something else. All of that can lead to mental health problems, and sadly, many of them don’t talk about it, even when they are constantly worried about that fact. They start struggling with sleeping, or they develop depression, anxiety, self-harm, suicide thoughts, etc. Andrea mentions that one of the strongest protective factors for children and young people is parental acceptance. Many times, they worry about what their parents will think about them being part of a different community, in this case I am talking about LGBTQ+. If their parents are supportive, it can strongly help them be more confident in themselves, but if they negate them, it can have a strong negative impact in their mental health. The second strongest protective factor is school connectedness. If their teachers and peers accept them, it can really help them keep going forward, knowing that even strangers are supportive, but if they don’t, they can even feel fear to talk about it. I am not part of the LGBTQ+ community, but I totally love and support them. It is admiring that even when they face so many challenges, they still struggle to make their voices be listened to by others. Some advice from me to relate with them is to listen to what they have to say, and empathize with them. Support what they want and need, and help them with their battle against a world of discrimination. Andrea Carlson mentions that Rhiannon Giddens talks about ‘othering’ people. When we ‘other’ people, we take a step towards genocide. Let’s accept people for what they are: people. Let’s love each other and support each other, because life is already difficult, and having us fighting each other will lead to nothing but unhappiness.