FEATURE: Two LGBTQ rights activists of different faiths find common ground

Buddhist monk Kodo Nishimura and Christian pastor Yoshiki Nakamura share a belief that queer lifestyle and organized religion can coexist, even when Japanese society makes people believe that finding such commonality is entirely impossible.Those who do not fit neatly into the standard gender tick box like Nishimura and Nakamura are seldom welcomed openly. That, plus personal experiences of exclusion, has been reason enough for many LGBTQ people and their communities to abandon religion altogether.But homophobia, in a country that has yet to legalize gay marriage, has not stopped these Tokyo…READ FULL ARTICLE