A growing number of Japanese municipalities have introduced ordinances banning the outing, or revealing, of a person’s sexual orientation or gender without their consent, researchers and officials said Sunday. The move highlights that some municipalities have made efforts to protect the human rights of LGBT people ahead of the central government as a law enacted in June to promote understanding of sexual minorities does not explicitly prohibit acts such as outing. As of Oct. 1, the number of municipalities launching ordinances forbidding outing had increased fivefold over the past three years to 26 across 12 prefectures, including Mie and Saitama, according to the Research Institute of Local Government and municipal officials.