The Comings & Goings column is about sharing the professional successes of our community. We want to recognize those landing new jobs, new clients for their business, joining boards of organizations and other achievements. Please share your successes with us at [email protected]. 

Congratulations to Andrew Doster who has joined EagleBank as the Head of Operations & Technology. He will spearhead the operational execution and enterprise-wide transformation of the bank. Upon accepting the position, he said, “It’s an honor to join EagleBank as Head of Operations & Technology. I’m thrilled to collaborate with this talented team to deliver on our ‘Relationships FIRST’ values, driving tangible results and exceptional service for our clients across the DC, Maryland, and Virgina regions.” 

EagleBank said about Doster, “He has a robust career spanning finance transformation at CrossCountry Consulting and strategic advisory at Boston Consulting Group; Andrew excels at turning complex visions into streamlined realities.”

Previously, Doster worked with CrossCountry Consulting in D.C., as director, Finance Transformation, Office of the CFO. He has also held positions with Fannie Mae, Strategic Alliances Team Lead, Digital Alliances and Distribution, Digital Product; with the Boston Consulting Group, Washington, D.C., Project Leader, TURN (Turnaround and Restructuring); Guidehouse Consulting, Management Consultant, Banking, Insurance and Capital Markets Washington, D.C.; and Fifth Third Bank, OH and IL. He is a TutorMate for Capitol Hill Elementary, Innovations for Learning; and is an Eagle Scout. 

Doster earned his bachelor’s in finance and accounting, University of Dayton; and his MBA from Xavier University. 

Congratulations also to Jonathan Lovitz new Senior Vice President of Campaigns and Communications, and to Amy J. Peña new Senior Vice President, General Counsel, both joining the senior staff of the Human Rights Campaign. HRC President Kelley Robinson said, “I’m thrilled to welcome Jonathan and Amy to the Human Rights Campaign at a critical moment for our community and the fight for equality. Their deep well of leadership experience, strategic vision, and passionate advocacy, will ensure HRC is prepared to face the ongoing threats to LGBTQ+ freedoms from a place of strength, joy, and respect.”   

Lovitz is a nationally recognized public affairs and policy leader with deep experience in LGBTQ advocacy. He most recently served as director of Public Affairs and Senior Adviser at the U.S. Department of Commerce, where he was a Biden-Harris administration appointee shaping the “Investing in America” story behind the CHIPS and Science Act and other major national economic growth initiatives. Prior to that he spent nearly a decade at the National LGBT Chamber of Commerce (NGLCC). 

Peña brings more than two decades of experience in legal counsel and management for non-profit and for-profit organizations to the general counsel role at HRC. She most recently served as the first ever General Counsel and Corporate Secretary for The Chicago Community Trust, a 100-year-old non-profit organization with assets exceeding $4.3 billion. Prior to that she worked as General Counsel and Corporate Secretary for the Association of Lions Clubs, a 1.4-million-member global 501(c)4 association and a $300 million 501(c)3 foundation with offices in the U.S., India, Japan, South Korea, and wholly owned legal entities in Brazil, Canada, and Australia. 

Tomoya Asanuma, a prominent transgender activist in Tokyo, faced the triple abuses of Japan’s “hostage justice” system, hostile detention conditions, and mistreatment trans people face in the absence of meaningful legal protections. 

For Asanuma, March 14, 2024, was supposed to be another Thursday at work. At around 7 a.m., he woke up to the sound of someone repeatedly ringing his doorbell. Through the intercom, Asanuma saw three men wearing dark-colored clothes, this time pounding his front door. When he opened the door, the men identified themselves as police officers and showed him an arrest warrant.

This was the beginning of what Asanuma recently described to Human Rights Watch as being “difficult to put into words.” After Japanese police arrested him for sexual assault for allegedly hugging an acquaintance from behind, the authorities held him for months at a pre-trial detention center. 

During this time, they mocked his transgender identity during interrogation, denied him access to medical services such as dental care, and initially denied hormone treatment until he obtained a recommendation from a doctor.

While some authorities showed a level of consideration for Asanuma, including letting him shower away from other detained men, the abusive treatment he faced led him to attempt suicide twice.

Trans people in Japan are in legal limbo. Historically, they have faced outright discrimination — including a law compelling them to be surgically sterilized for legal gender recognition — and barriers to accessing education, employment, and health care. A landmark Supreme Court decision in 2023 declared the sterilization requirement unconstitutional, but reform has stalled in parliament — leaving trans people’s basic rights in limbo.

The courts finally granted bail to Asanuma in July 2024 and found him not guilty in January 2025. But in a country with a 99.8 percent conviction rate for indicted cases, Asanuma had to live through acute fear as authorities forcibly tried to obtain a confession from him during interrogations without the presence of his lawyer.

His fears are grounded in a justice system with a well-earned reputation for abuse and arbitrariness. His experience is part of systemic treatment in Japan called “hostage justice,” under which criminal suspects are detained for prolonged periods, sometimes months or years, unless they confess to the charges. This denies them the rights to due process and a fair trial. 

The authorities ultimately dropped the sexual assault allegations, but charged Asanuma with assault, which is punishable by up to two years in prison or up to a 300,000 yen fine ($2,000.) Prosecutors sought a 200,000 yen fine. Despite this, because he pleaded not guilty, a court rejected his request for bail four times and detained him for more than 100 days in pre-trial detention, punishing him disproportionately since the prosecutors did not even seek imprisonment for his alleged crime.

In Japan’s hostage justice system, authorities frequently subject suspects to harsh interrogations to coerce confessions from them during pre-indictment detention. Defense lawyers are not permitted to be present, and the questioning does not stop even when a suspect invokes their constitutional right to remain silent. Indeed, Asanuma invoked his right to remain silent, but authorities interrogated him for hours on 13 occasions. 

The case of Iwao Hakamata highlights the dangers of this practice. Hakamata, a former professional boxer, was arrested on Aug. 18, 1966, for murdering a family of four. Following harsh interrogations by the police and prosecutors, he confessed nearly a month later. Based on this coerced confession, Hakamata was indicted and subsequently convicted and sentenced to death. He maintained his innocence and was eventually acquitted — 58 years after his arrest — on Sept. 26, 2024, following a retrial.

To prevent further abuses and wrongful convictions spurred by the “hostage justice” system, the Japanese government should not as a general rule deny bail to suspects in pretrial detention, and should end interrogations without legal counsel that often involve coerced confessions through manipulation and intimidation.

The Japanese government should also improve the conditions under which suspects are being held, including by ensuring adequate access to all medical services, and revising the Notice Regarding Treatment Guidelines for Detainees with Gender Identity Disorder by specifying that hormone replacement therapy and other gender-affirming medical interventions are medically necessary and should be made available to all imprisoned people who want them.

“My case is just the tip of the iceberg, as there are others who are detained much longer,” Asanuma said. “I think this experience gave me a good reason to speak up even more for the rights of suspects going forward,” he added.

Teppei Kasai is a program officer for Japan at Human Rights Watch. 

The 28th annual Delaware Pride Festival is back this weekend in the capital city of Dover. 

The Saturday event will take place from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. on the Legislative Green outside of the state capitol building in Dover. The festival is hosted by drag queen Scarlet Masters.

The schedule includes a policy panel with State Representatives Eric Morrison and DeShanna Neal, a performance from the Rainbow Chorale of Delaware, and drag shows. There will also be food vendors, a kids zone, beer garden, and 21+ after party. 

“Pride season is a riot, a time to advocate, and a time to remember those that came before us to take us as far as we are today, especially our trans and BIPOC siblings,” wrote Delaware Pride President Zach Workman in a letter on its website. “Always remember that when one member of our community is under attack, we come together to support them. We remember the sacrifices of our ancestors in order to fuel our push into the future. We are here, we have always been here, and we will be here for the future to come no matter how many times others try to erase us … This festival is a testament to the strength of queer Delawareans as it has stood the test of time over the last 28 iterations, becoming a lasting tradition.”