Thousands take part in Seoul LGBT festival

[reader]

From Channel News Asia

SEOUL: Thousands of South Koreans took part in an LGBT festival in downtown Seoul on Saturday (Jul 16), as Christian and conservative groups held a rally in protest across the road.

Dubbed Seoul Queer Culture Festival, about 13,000 people were estimated to have participated as of about 3pm local time, Yonhap reported.

Participants, some wearing rainbow masks and toting rainbow flags, looked around some 72 booths opened by human rights groups, university LGBT clubs, embassies, religious and progressive organisations, taking part in face painting or social media events.

"I'm glad we can have an offline festival after a long time. LGBT people are not hateful people who appear one day out of the year but people who live their daily lives just the same," said Hurricane Kimchi, a drag queen who attended the festival.

"The Queer Festival has gotten bigger, and many LGBT people show up without hiding, because the perception in our society is getting better."

The US ambassador to South Korea, Philip Goldberg, attended the festival to show his support.

"To express the strong commitment of the United States to ending discrimination wherever it occurs and ensuring that everyone is treated with respect and humanity, we simply cannot leave any of you behind," Goldberg told the crowd.

"We're going to fight with you for equality and human rights."

Across the road from the festival, taking place in Seoul Plaza in front of City Hall, the protest rally had at least 15,000 participants, according to the Yonhap news agency.

"We are protesting and holding a national convention for the healthy sexual ethics of our children, and we are rallying together to call for the proper operation of Seoul Plaza, which is run with citizens' taxes," said Lee Yong-hee, a university professor and participant in the protest rally.

Police were at the site to guard against possible clashes.

[PeterRS]

13,000 taking part in the Pride event and 15,000 in the anti-Pride protest rally across the Square? It seems South Korea still has a very long way to go before the LGBT community is accepted.

But then that country has always been something of an enigma. A country where the macho image of a man remains the ideal for the vast majority, where every male (with rare exceptions) must undergo almost two years of military service whatever their jobs and professions, where the salaryman leaves for the office every day and returns every evening, letting his wife manage the household finances.  It's a country where the new President recently told the husband of the USA's Vice President, "homosexuality can be treated."

Yet this same country is the centre of the K-Pop worldwide phenomenon, an entertainment which amost demands that its particpants undergo plastic surgery so thay all look more or less identical and where the boys look incredibly handsome. This in itself is all so new. When I was visiting Seoul many times in the 1980s and early 1990s, I saw no one who looked anything like a K-Pop star. Virtually all young guys seemed boring - at least to me. It was one of many Asia countries I just did not enjoy visiting.

A recent Washington Post article underscores the generally homophobic nature of South Koreans. Despite the little progress that has been made recently, homosexuality is still a taboo issue in most households. Look back into Korean history, though, and it was certainly not always thus. During the three main Korean dyasties, homosexual activity was far from uncommon at Court. During the Silla Dynasty, King Hyegong was known for his adventures with other men. He was even described as "a man by appearance but a woman by nature." One group of his elite warriors were called the Hwarang or "Flower Boys", so called because of their homoeroticism and femininity. 

During the later Koryo Dynasty, King Mokjong and King Gongmin had several male lovers.When his wife died, Gongmin even went so far as to create a Ministry whose sole purpose was to seek out and recruit young men from all over the country to serve his Court. His sexual partners were called "little brother attendants!" King Chungseon is known to have had several long-term relationships with other men.

In the Chosun era, it was members of the mobility which frequently engaged in same-sex relationships. As in Japan, travelling theatre groups developed providing various forms of entertainment. Often these included under-age "beautiful boys" and their entertainment included graphic representations of same-sex coupings. All finally came to an end in 1910 when Japan invaded Korea and imposed its often brutal and repressive regime. After those years and the years of virtual American occupation when it restored to power the loathed President/dictator Syngman Rhee, perhaps it's not surprising that, as in China and Japan, so many in the country have now forgotten their  homosexual-acceptance pasts.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/05/11/south-korea-gender-lgbt-rights-president-yoon/