Silla gay

Felicito a las organizaciones que mantienen la lucha, la concientización. On top of that, only 44% of South Koreans were accepting of gay people in a 2020 poll and only around 5% of respondents in a 2018 poll were comfortable with gay people as close friends. Pero el dato más inquietante está en quiénes ejercen esa violencia.

Los cuerpos uniformados, encargados de proteger a la población, son los principales perpetradores:

• 31.1 por ciento corresponde a la Policía Nacional Civil (PNC),

• 26.67 por ciento al Cuerpo de Agentes Municipales (CAM),

• 12.22 por ciento a militares desplegados en las calles bajo el régimen de excepción.

A ello se suma un 21.11 por ciento de agresiones cometidas por personal de salud pública, especialmente por enfermeras, lo que demuestra que la discriminación alcanza incluso los espacios que deberían garantizar la vida y la dignidad.

Loidi Guardado, representante de ASPIDH, comparte con Washington Blade un caso que retrata la cotidianidad de estas violencias:

“Una enfermera en la clínica VICITS de San Miguel, en la primera visita me reconoció que la persona era hijo de un promotor de salud y fue amable.

Porque hay que ver estrategias, porque se está siendo silenciado, nadie puede hablar; hay capturas injustas, no hay derechos.”

Schuld agrega que el CIS continuará apoyando con un programa de becas para personas trans, con el fin de fomentar su educación y autonomía económica. 성소수자들의 공간 전유와 커뮤니티 만들기. This particular brand of homophobia and transphobia existed due to multiple factors, many of which influence sentiments toward queer people in the modern-day.

Only about 22 percent were out to their mothers and 11 percent to their fathers. n.d. So I’m not really in a place to write about what it’s like or what it means to live there as an LGBTQ person. King Hyegong of Silla is one of the earliest known examples, though his identity is a difficult account to figure out. (Han Yu Seok 한유석, writing in Korean, calls it Gay Hill 게이힐.) Schroder (2014) calls the alley “a spatial marker of the social change that has occurred for homosexuals amidst the sweeping changes that democratic liberalisation brought” (43),  which is probably true, but on a more plebeian level, there are a lot of clubs here that fit the general image gay bars/clubs.

Unsurprisingly, then, LGBT rights are not widely recognized in South Korea. On top of the aforementioned denial of the very existence of non-heterosexual and non-cisgender identities, the national government has failed to pass nondiscrimination laws to protect queer people multiple times. He also plans to run for a local office in my Korean hometown district soon.

 

There’s also Harisu (하리수), Korea’s first transgender entertainer, who moved to Japan after coming out to her family, had sex reassignment surgery and was discovered by a talent agency while working as a hairdresser there.

It’s pronounced “dong” like the sound of a bell + “sung” like the past tense of sing + the letter A, more or less.

So, let’s talk about tongsŏngae, which literally means homosexual love, or same (同) + sex (姓) + love (愛), in its parent Chinese characters.

History

On the Korean Peninsula, as in all societies, people have been pairing off with people of the same sex since … forever.

The earliest historical reference to homosexuality in Korea is in Samguk Yusa, a collection of tales and historical accounts of the Three Kingdoms period probably compiled in the late 13th century.

인터넷. And, as in other places, some continue to deny that homosexuality exists among Koreans – in fact, this morning a friend posted a quote from a reporter at Yonhap News, basically the AP of SK, doing just that in relation to the tragedy in Orlando. In South Korea, it’s not uncommon for people to paint queerness as a purely Western invention, inherently at odds with Korean traditions and values.

2008. Accessed 13 June 2016.

Choi, Hyung-Ki, et al (2004). Surveys by the Asan Institute found that 47.4 percent of 20-somethings were OK with homosexuality, up from 26.7 percent in 2010.

It emphasized certain hierarchical dynamics between a man and his wife and underlined the family as the primary unit that makes up society. She became a household name in Korea after appearing in a cosmetics commercial in 2001 and has been rather successful ever since.

Another celebrity, fashion model and TV personality Kim Ji-hoo (김지후), came out as gay in 2008 and killed himself a few months later.

And that’s pretty much the end of the list of out-of-the-closet LGBTQ Korean celebrities, at least as far as I know.

You can read more here in English or Korean.

Basically, I’d rate South Korea right there with Mississippi when it comes to ease of life for LGBT folks, although I guess Seoul probably has a better nightlife scene.

Wait – there’s a gay scene in Korea?

I think it’s safe to say that South Korea is not a particularly gay-friendly country – although it’s probably better to be gay there than in the North.

And so the existence of queer people has always been looked down upon in some respects throughout Korean history.