History of GayJapanNews & Equality

February, 2005: 　 Started GJN with a small group of dedicated, hard-working local and international reporters.

March, 2005:　Began the process of registering our NPO, Equality, with the government.

June, 2005: 　Equality organized its first email protest. Despite a relatively small turnout, the protest was a success and the Sapporo Zoo reversed its decision to separate two gay penguins who had paired off together. The pair is now happily living together.

July, 2005: 　GJN reaches 10,000 hits per day.

September. 2005:　　ＧＪＮ became an international media partner to Sydney's Mardi Gras.

October, 2005:　　Equality organized its second email protest. Triple the number of people from the previous protest participated, and forced the national newspaper, Nikkei Shimbun, to retract and apologize for offensive and discriminating language used in describing the Tokyo Gay and Lesbian Pride Parade.

November, 2005: 　GJN reaches 50,000 hits per day.

January, 2006: 　GJN and Equality are featured in The Japan Times, one of the largest English-language newspapers in the country. 　Equality partners with Clothing designer, Ginch Gonch; Hotel Mercurio in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico; and Canadian travel marketing company, Gayvan.

February, 2006: 　GJN is featured in Google News. GJN reaches 100,000 hits per day.

May, 2006: 　GJN partners with Tokyo Gay and Lesbian Pride Parade, Sapporo Rainbow March, and Japan's first openly gay politician, Kanako Otsuji, to create the IDAHO Japan 2006 Committee--Japan's representative body for the 2006 International Day Against Homophobia (IDAHO). http://www.idahomophobia.org/article.php3?id_article=213

December, 2006: 　GJN starts Japan's first ever Gay Ski Weekend charity event in Nagano, home of the 1998 Winter Olympics. It is an overwhelming success, with funds going to support Kanako Otsuji. Also, GJN was featured in an article in the Japanzine magazne. [read it here]

January, 2007: 　GJN is named as the head of International Development for Japan's largest gay pride event, the Tokyo Lesbian and Gay Parade.

March, 2007: 　GJN partners with the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce to create the Japan LGBT Commerce Community (JLCC). This is the first-ever chamber for sexual-minorities in Japan. The purpose of JLCC is to facilitate the growth and expansion of the LGBT economy in Japan.

September, 2007: 　GJN becomes a recognized full member of The International Gay and Lesbian Association. IGLA is a world-wide network of national and local groups dedicated to achieving equal rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered (LGBT) people everywhere. To this day, it is the only international non-profit and non-governmental community-based federation focused on presenting discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation as a global issue.(news)