In Seoul, Pride Strikes Back

The Seoul queer parade drew tens of thousands of people to the streets on July 1 in an event that stood defiant against conservative officials and groups that have pulled out all the stops to prevent Pride parades from taking place across South Korea.

The battle for LGBTQ+ rights in South Korea escalated this year when Seoul city officials replaced the Seoul Queer Culture Festival—which has held the country’s largest LGBTQ+ parade at Seoul Plaza since 2015 except during two years due to COVID-19—with a Christian youth concert. In June, hundreds of Daegu city officials and protesters backed by their conservative mayor disrupted the Daegu Queer Festival, resulting in a physical clash with the police.

The struggle for LGBTQ+ rights in South Korea is emblematic of a wider global struggle for LGBTQ+ rights around the world. A 2021 study from the Multi-Donor LGBTI Global Human Rights Initiative found that in two-thirds of the 175 countries and locations analyzed, there was stasis or a decline in social acceptance of LGBTQ+ people from 1981 to 2020. According to the study, South Korea ranked 75th in acceptance, lagging behind other developed democracies in Asia, including Taiwan and Japan.

Even the United States, which ranked 23rd in that same study, continues to struggle with LGBTQ+ acceptance. The Supreme Court ruled on June 30 that a Christian graphic artist had the right to refuse services to same-sex couples. State legislatures have passed 70 laws that advocacy groups characterize as anti-LGBTQ+ in this year alone, and U.S. corporations have toned down their Pride pitches, prompting U.S. President Joe Biden to create a new federal coordinator position to combat the spike in state-level book bans that he said disproportionately target LGBTQ+ youth.

LGBTQ+ rights in South Korea remain in a state of limbo for a number of reasons. The explosive growth of Christianity in South Korea coincided with a period of conservative dictatorships after the Korean War, creating the foundation for a right-wing bloc that has the power to influence elections. The majority of Christians in South Korea, around 10 million of them, belong to Protestant denominations, more than double the number of Catholics.

And there’s little political motivation for lawmakers to prioritize LGBTQ+ rights. With one conservative administration after another reinforcing this attitude, the issue has become an endless back-and-forth tussle that leaves advocates wondering what kind of future LGBTQ+ rights have in South Korea. The country’s anti-discrimination bill, first proposed in 2007, continues to struggle to gain enough backing in parliament due to its protection for sexual minorities. Subsequent efforts to pass the bill have been squashed by conservative religious groups despite pressure from the United Nations and advocacy groups to pass the legislation.

In April, Seoul Plaza received two requests for its use on July 1—one from the Seoul Queer Culture Festival and one from Christian Television System (CTS). City officials granted CTS permission to use Seoul Plaza, saying that “events for children and teenagers get a priority.” But organizers of the parade call it an act of discrimination by city officials and an attempt by CTS—a Christian broadcasting company that was until recently placed under a disciplinary restriction for its anti-LGBTQ+ programming—to stop the parade from happening.

“In South Korean society, ‘discriminatory administration’ against the LGBTQ+ community runs rampant, casting LGBTQ+ people out of the public sphere and institutionalizing discrimination,” Seoul Queer Parade said on May 15. “Hate rooted in religion further fuels this regression.” CTS did not respond to a request for comment.

Every year, the Seoul queer parade had to fight for its place at Seoul Plaza, organizers said. And every year, the parade would be met with protesters carrying homophobic signs like “eradicate homosexuality” and “homosexuality is not human right but sin.”

Much of the opposition comes from Protestant groups that are “highly mobilized, highly resourced, and very effective through lobbying for the National Assembly and individual members of parliament,” Tom Rainey-Smith, a campaigner for Amnesty International Korea, said. South Korea has the most prominent Protestant presence in East Asia, and evangelicals are the dominant strain among them. These groups hold significant influence over elected officials, backing those who are against the anti-discrimination bill.

The fight in Korea over gay rights is right where the line between freedom of worship collides with civil rights, said Ryan Thoreson, a University of Cincinnati law professor and specialist in the LGBTQ+ rights program at Human Rights Watch.

“Religious freedom tips into discrimination when it starts to be used as a sword rather than a shield to deprive others of their rights,” he said.

Parade organizers ultimately chose Euljiro 2-ga, a section of Seoul less than a mile from Seoul Plaza, as the new location, with less potential for violent clashes. The Pride parade still marched past the Christian youth concert, organizers said.

Other cities in South Korea face even more conservative backlash and hurdles to holding their own Pride parades. Despite successful Busan Queer Culture Festival events in 2017 and 2018, Haeundae district officials refused to give the festival road occupation permission in 2019 and filed a criminal complaint. The festival has not been held since.

Anti-gay rights campaigners hold signs during a Pride march in Seoul on July 15, 2017. ED JONES/AFP via Getty Images

The Daegu Queer Culture Festival, which was held for the first time in 15 years on June 17, resulted in a physical showdown between hundreds of city officials attempting to block the main venue and hundreds of police officers stationed to ensure the safety of the festival. Daegu Mayor Hong Joon-pyo, who is known for his anti-gay stance and as an adversary of the Pride event, criticized the Daegu police for protecting the Pride festival and “illegally” blocking public roads, calling on the Daegu police commissioner to be fired.

Thoreson described the tactic used by far-right groups and politicians as a “heckler’s veto.”

“Their only interest is in disrupting these events and preventing them from taking place,” he said. “I think that should sound a note of caution to lawmakers—that many of the groups they are waiting for for social consensus [on the anti-discrimination bill] have no investment in that consensus ever occurring,” he said.

The strong opposition against the Korean LGBTQ+ community—especially among older generations, faith-based groups, and a deeply rooted conservative political system—points to a culture and set of traditional values that are not so easily shifted. South Korea remains one of the few developed democratic countries without an anti-discrimination law.

But there are signs that change, though glacial, is coming. About 57 percent of South Korean adults say they support the anti-discrimination bill, according to a 2022 Gallup survey, pointing to a general sentiment among the Korean public that the country must start changing with the times. And increasing visibility of queer lives in South Korea gives experts hope.

Proponents of LGBTQ+ rights in South Korea have, in fact, made some ground this year with a landmark ruling recognizing the rights of a same-sex couple and the introduction of a same-sex marriage bill to parliament. Experts also believe that the opposition’s mobilization points to a growing awareness and support for the LGBTQ+ community in South Korea that make the opposition ever more fearful.

“It’s a kind of reflexive rejection of growing equality in the society that is painful and destructive in the short term but hints at the fact that society is changing in the long term,” Thoreson said.