Man suffers mental illness after being outed as gay. He is thus awarded workers’ compensation. By Lonce Lamonte - October 25, 2023
It happened in Japan. A young gay man, in his 20s, suffered mental illness after being outed as gay by his boss. Thus, labor authorities agreed to pay the outed man workers’ compensation.
He said on July 24th of this year that he couldn’t trust anyone anymore and had to come forward to make it right.
This may be the first case in Japan where such compensation was granted to a worker who experienced outing in the workplace. A nonprofit organization that addresses labor issues, POSSE, made the statement.
Members of POSSE joined the man at a news conference held in Tokyo.
He had joined a Tokyo life insurance agent in 2019 and let his boss know that he was gay when he listed his partner as his emergency contact. He also told his boss that he would tell his colleagues about his sexual orientation if and only if and when it was necessary. But, the boss went ahead and told one of his colleagues about the man’s sexual orientation without his consent.
The gay man went into a total panic and couldn’t stop sobbing when he learned of the unexpected outing. The shock of being outed made him mentally ill. He said his supervisor also verbally abused him on a separate issue. Thus, he quit his job in October of 2020 after the company admitted the supervisor’s action and apologized earlier in that month.
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