Summary
The blue boy trial (ブルーボーイ事件, burū bōi jiken) was a trial regarding the legality of sex reassignment surgery in Japan.
In the mid-20th century, the term "blue boy" was slang for a transgender or transvestite person who was assigned male at birth.[1]
In 1965, a doctor performed sex reassignment surgical operations on three trans women. The doctor was prosecuted for violating eugenics laws and was found guilty of violating Clause 28 of the Eugenics Protection Law.[1] The law prohibited any surgery deemed unnecessary that caused sterilization.
After the trial, sex reassignment surgeries were not performed again until 1998.[1] However, the media coverage of the trial increased general knowledge of sex reassignment surgery and the transgender community in Japan.[2]
References edit
- ^ a b c McLelland, Mark (March 2004). "From the stage to the clinic: changing transgender identities in post-war Japan". Japan Forum. 16 (1): 1–20. doi:10.1080/0955580032000189302. S2CID 39723189.
- ^ "Intersections: The Process of Divergence between 'Men who Love Men' and 'Feminised Men' in Postwar Japanese Media". intersections.anu.edu.au. Retrieved 2018-10-13.