Photo/Illutration (The Asahi Shimbun)

Acclaimed Taiwanese fiction writer Li Kotomi came out publicly as transgender after social media posts forced the issue by revealing her background.

“I was assigned the wrong gender when I was born, and I later corrected it to female,” Li told The Asahi Shimbun on Nov. 25.

Li, 34, said she “fled to Japan” in 2013 after she experienced bullying and discrimination because she was transgender.

“I could not live with peace of mind in Taiwan,” she said.

Li, who is lesbian, posted on social media Nov. 20 that she is also transgender.

The day is observed as Transgender Day of Remembrance to commemorate trans people who died because of discrimination.

Li said she found herself outed on social media platforms such as X after she won the prestigious Akutagawa Prize in 2021 for her “Higanbana ga Saku Shima” (The island where red spider lilies bloom).

The posts were initially limited to Chinese but later appeared in Japanese.

A civil case is pending over the postings by those living in Taiwan, Li said.

Like many other trans people, Li did not want to disclose her gender transition.

Li previously refused to discuss whether she is transgender, calling it a “despicable question.”

“I am a female and lesbian,” the writer said. “The fact that I am transgender is not something that forms the essence of myself.”

However, the outing did not stop even after the lawsuit was filed, and Li said she was “cornered to the point where I considered suicide.”

She felt under pressure to come out to let people know that “outing is a grave infringement of human rights that could drive (trans people) to death.”

Li said she has fulfilled her dream of becoming a novelist and “survived” until today even as she suffered repression and discrimination for being a sexual minority.

“I came out as a result of being outed, but I hope that my existence will give hope to someone,” she said.

In 2015, a gay student fell to his death from a building at Tokyo’s Hitotsubashi University after he was outed by a schoolmate to whom he had revealed his romantic feelings.

The 25-year-old was a student at the university’s Graduate School of Law.

In 2020, the Tokyo High Court dismissed his parent’s claims for damages, saying that the university’s response was not illegal.

But the court stated that outing is an “unforgivable act that grossly invades (an individual’s) personal and privacy rights.”

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