Customize Consent Preferences

We use cookies to help you navigate efficiently and perform certain functions. You will find detailed information about all cookies under each consent category below.

The cookies that are categorized as "Necessary" are stored on your browser as they are essential for enabling the basic functionalities of the site. ... 

Always Active

Necessary cookies are required to enable the basic features of this site, such as providing secure log-in or adjusting your consent preferences. These cookies do not store any personally identifiable data.

No cookies to display.

Functional cookies help perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collecting feedback, and other third-party features.

No cookies to display.

Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics such as the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.

No cookies to display.

Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.

No cookies to display.

Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with customized advertisements based on the pages you visited previously and to analyze the effectiveness of the ad campaigns.

No cookies to display.

Manga de Wakaru LGBQ+ (マンガでわかるLGBTQ+)

September 19th, 2021

I follow a number of Japanese sexual and gender minority groups on Twitter. I’ve even created a Twitter list with all the JP groups I follow, knowing that new groups aspring up all the time. One of these groups, Palettalk, recently announced a new book on LGBTQ+ issues. I was interested in the book and marked it down for future purchase. Here’s where this story gets a tad weird. ^_^ I visit Kinokuniya monthly to get Comic Yuri Hime and random other manga purchases and, that next visit, as I walked around the store, on a shelf of cat manga that I never look at, facing out, like someone just dropped it there…was this very book.  The chances of it being in my local Kjnokuniya seemed infinitesimal, and yet, there it was.

Which is how I came to have Palettalk’s Manga de Wakaru LGBQ+ (マンガでわかるLGBTQ+), instead of just ordering it like usual. ^_^ It’s a great little volume that I highly recommend to folks who want the allies among their friends and relatives to understand them better and be just that much more sensitive to their concerns. In essence, it’s a workbook for allyship.

The book is broken up into short manga of case scenarios, discussions designed to look like online chats, workbook pages, Q&A and informational essays and definitions. The case scenarios are mostly focused on adult life, but many of them hearken back to school situations, as well. As a result, it moves quickly through scenarios, like dealing with insensitive things a bisexual might have people around them say to them, how it makes them feel. Then it goes into what we, as allies, need to understand about bisexuality so we don’t unintentionally hurt our bisexual friends  – or allow other people to intentionally hurt them.

Discussions range from how it feels when straight folks make erroneous assumptions about gay folks, to the unintended consequences of coming out or not. The Palettalk staff weighs in with their own experiences, and there are worksheets for us to think about the scenarios for ourselves.

Because all of this is done in an easy-to-read manga form, with scenario comics interspersed with short essays, informational pages and the rest, it’s informative and approachable.

Ratings aren’t really relevant for this book, but I hope folks in Japan will pick it up and share it with friends and family.

I’m really glad I picked this up and my sincere thanks to the folks at Palettalk for putting this book together.

Leave a Reply