- “I’m coming out now,” Yokoyama said in a video from former teammate Yuki Nagasato’s YouTube channel as translated by the Japan Times. “In the future, I want to quit soccer and live as a man.”
- Yokoyama said their teammates in the U.S. made them more comfortable with their own gender identity due to their openness to gender diversity.
- In Japan, transgender people are allowed to change their legal gender but comes with a lengthy legal recognition process, according to Human Rights Watch.
- To have their gender recognized on official documents, transgender people must have their reproductive organs removed.
- Yokoyama said they “would not have come out in Japan” due to the reported lack of support and awareness about the LGBTQ community.
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- Biden wrote: “To Carl Nassib and Kumi Yokoyama – two prominent, inspiring athletes who came out this week: I’m so proud of your courage. Because of you, countless kids around the world are seeing themselves in a new light today.”
- Yokoyama’s team, the Spirit, also expressed its support and pride for Yokoyama. “Thank you for showing the world it’s ok to embrace who you are!” the team tweeted.