LGBT history in South Korea

• 1993.12. Formation of South Korea’s pioneer queer rights organization, Ch'odonghwe 초동회 (composed of three gay men and three lesbians) which later split into Chingusai and Kirikiri
• 1994.2. Dissolution of Ch'odonghoe 초동회
• 1994. Formation of two organizations: Chingusai 친구사이 (Between Friends) for gay men and KiriKiri 끼리끼리 for lesbians
• 1995. Online communication promotes further contact among LGBTQ communities. Proliferation of LGBTQ affinity/rights groups following the launch of LGBTQ organizations at Seoul National University and Yonsei University
• 1996. First lesbian bar (Lesbos) opens. Airing of “Gina Song Report”
• 1997. Korean Queer Film Festival is held for the first time. The first mass gathering of LGBTQ individuals, accompanied by the formation of “Union of College Lesbians and Gays” (Daedongin), which became Solidarity for LGBT Human Rights of Korea (Dong'illyŏn) later. First demonstrations for gay rights as an independent issue
• 1998. Launch of Buddy, Korea’s first national gay-interest magazine. Key members of Buddy later establish the Korean Sexual Minority Culture and Rights Center (KSCRC) in 2003
• 1999. Growth of internet social networking sites (e.g. X-Zone, Hwa-rang, Tgnet..)
• 2000. Queer Culture Festival is held for the first time. Korean celebrity Hong Seok Cheon comes out
• 2001. Debut of entertainer Harisu, a transgender woman. Passage of the first National Human Rights Commission Act to include the term “sexual orientation”
• 2002. Controversy over the closure of X Zone by the Information Communication Ethics Committee
• 2003. The National Human Rights Commission recommends the removal of homophobic language in the Youth Protection Act. Yook Woo Dang, a youth member of Dong'illyŏn, commits suicide in the office.
• 2004. The Youth Protection Act Enforcement Decree removes homophobic language (the first of several revised statutes related to gay rights). The Korea Democratic Labor Party becomes the first national political body to establish an internal committee for LGBTQ issues.
• 2005. Project L(esbian) opens at Konkuk University. It was the first exhibition organized by openly bisexual women and lesbian artists in South Korea.
• 2006. Drafting of transgender sex change legislation joint solidarity. Proposal of special law initiative for sex change of transgender. Supreme Court approves sex change of transgender.
• 2007.10. A struggle begins in response to the section in the Anti-Discrimination Act prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation. The identity of bigotry is manifested.
• 2008. Choi Hyun Sook runs as the first openly lesbian candidate in the Korean general election. Formation of “Rainbow Action,” a coalition of LGBT organizations of Korea. First LGBT Human Rights Forum is held.
• 2010. “Life is Beautiful,” a television drama containing the story of a gay couple, is nationally broadcast.
• 2011. Outbreak of hate crimes in Jongno. "Rainbow Action" stages a sit-in at the city council offices. The deadlock surrounding the attempt to pass the Ordinance for Student Rights in Seoul without including sexual orientation and gender identity among its protections resolves, and the Ordinance for Student Rights in Seoul passes.
• 2012. LGBTQ banners are banned by the local government of Mapo-gu, causing controversy.
• 2013. For the first time, transgender individuals can legally change their gender without gender reassignment surgery. The Democratic Party withdraws its Anti-Discrimination Act. Mean Hong Cheol, a Democratic Party member of the National Assembly, pushes for a retrogressive revision of the Military Criminal Law, which criminalizes even consensual sexual relationships in army.
• 2013. Movie director Kim Jho Kwang-soo and his partner Kim Seung-hwan become the first South Korean gay couple to publicly wed, although it is not a legally recognized marriage.[9]
• 2014. Queer activists occupy the Seoul City Hall in protest.[10]
• 2017. The Supreme Court ordered the government to allow "Beyond the Rainbow", an LGBT rights foundation, to register as a charity with the Ministry of Justice.[11]
• 2019. The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency granted permission to the Seoul Queer Culture Festival to host a parade within city limits, despite there being police concerns over threats and violence from counter-protestors.[12] This contrasts with the agency's handling of the festival in 2015, in which they had denied permission to the parade amid concerns of traffic disruptions and violent counter-protests.[13]

South Korean political parties tend to avoid formally addressing LGBT rights issues, as do most of the elected politicians. A major exception would be the Democratic Labour Party.

The Democratic Labour Party (Korean: 민주노동당), established in January 2000, is the third-largest political party in South Korea and has a political panel known as the Sexual Minorities Committee (Korean: 민주노동당 성소수자위원회) which advocates the recognition and political representation of sexual minorities. Their stated agenda includes a campaign against homophobia and discrimination based on sexual preferences, equal rights for sexual minorities (in their own words "complete freedom, equality, and right of pursuit of happiness for homosexuals")[14] as well as the legalization of same-sex marriages.[14] On its campaign bid for the 2004 parliamentary elections, the Democratic Labour Party promised the abolition of all inequalities against sexual minorities and won a record 10 seats in the Kukhoe National Assembly.

On July 30, 2004, the Committee filed a formal complaint against the Incheon District Court's decision to refuse the recognition of same-sex marriages. The complaint was filed on the grounds that the decision is unconstitutional since neither the Constitution nor civil law define marriage as being between a man and a woman (the only mentioned requisite is age of majority) and that the Constitution explicitly forbids discrimination "pertaining to all political, economic, social, or cultural aspects of life of an individual." The Committee also claimed that refusal to recognize same-sex marriages constitutes discrimination based on sexual orientation and a refusal to provide equal protection under the law.[15]

On December 19, 2007, Lee Myung-bak of the conservative Grand National Party won the presidential election. In a 2007 newspaper interview, the president-elect stated that homosexuality is "abnormal", and that he opposed legal recognition of same-sex marriages.[16]

During South Korea's April 9, 2008 elections, Choi Hyun-sook (최현숙) became South Korea's first openly gay candidate for national public office when she ran for a seat in the National Assembly of South Korea. Her bid was unsuccessful.

16 years old female South Korean student, Kang Min-jin (강민진), was noticeable for publicizing a series of protests in front of the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education for neglecting the sexual rights of South Korean teenagers.[17]

In the late 1990s, college students became the leading voices of South Korea's Pro-Democracy Movement. In 1995, gay and lesbian student groups began to emerge on college campuses. Among them include Come Together at Yonsei University, Maum 001 at Seoul National University, Hwarang at Kunkook University, and Saram and Saram at Korea University. Students at Korean universities experienced difficulties with being open about their sexualities. Forming these groups on campuses legitimized and increased their visibility.

Two prominent members from Ch'ingusai, Dong-jin Suh and Jung-woo Lee, came out as openly gay at their respective universities, which encouraged more students to be open about their sexuality. In October 1995, these two male students teamed up with young feminist student activists to host a "Sexual Politics Festival" at Yonsei University. This event engaged university students in issues of campus rape, lesbianism, and family. Suh and Lee, among other student leaders, were given media attention for their activism. They were invited to television talk shows, radio shows, and university lectures to discuss their efforts at increasing the visibility of lesbians and gay men to the public.[18]

In 1995, South Korea's gay and lesbian communities grew more quickly than it had in previous years due to the influx of Bulletin Board Systems (BBS) on Korean internet servers. Three Korean servers, Hitel, Chollian, and Nownuri facilitated online communication between Korean gays and lesbians. The BBSs were computer systems with chat features that allowed users to interact with each other. The groups enabled queer South Koreans to share information and overcome isolation. From online communication, the members of the BBSs were able to organize meet-ups and spread educational information regarding the rise of HIV and AIDS, which were not always immediately accessible elsewhere. Eventually, these online chat groups lead to the emergence of popular websites where gay men and lesbians could interact with others from around the world. Some such websites included Exzone for gay men and TG-Net for lesbians.[18]

LGBT and/or Queer representation in South Korean film has been noted in films starting as early as the emergence of cinema in South Korea to the present. However, it should be recognized that categorization of LGBT/queer films can be unclear due to variation in how LGBT/Queer characters and storylines are represented, ranging from subtle allusions to more obvious and overt depictions. Ambiguity as to what constitutes queer representation also stems from the debate over how to define the term "queer." While LGBT/queer representation varies greatly in cinema, non-normative elements and transgressive qualities may promote a queer reading of film, thus placing it in the category of LGBT/queer.[19]

Films directed by openly LGBTQ directors have mostly been released independently and as short films. These include Lee Song Hee-il's films Everyday is Like Sunday (1997)[20] and No Regret (2006)[21] as well as Kimjo Kwang-soo's films Boy Meets Boy (2008)[22] and Just Friends? (2009).[23] Films by LGBTQ directors are not limited to short films however, as seen by the feature-length film by Kim Kyung-mook's, Stateless Things (2011).[19]

Notable films in Korean queer cinema include Ascetic: Woman and Woman (Kim Su-hyeong, 1976) which won awards during the time of its release but did not receive much popularity.[20] Road Movie (Kim In-shik, 2002), released through a major film company did not have the expected box office results, but has been seen as a precursor to queer films that came after it.[21] One of the most mainstream and successful queer films is The King and the Clown (Lee Joon-ik, 2005) which represented LGBT themes mainly through it subtext rather than explicit depictions, but reached a mainstream audience.[24] The Handmaiden (Park Chan-wook, 2016) also found striking success at the box office and like The King and the Clown, depicted homosexuality in a subtle way that conveyed queer sexual tension.[25]

In 2004, the Lesbian Counseling Center in South Korea (formerly Kirikiri) and the Lesbian Institute for Lesbians (LIFL) ran a research study titled “Research of Actual Condition of Lesbians of South Korea, 2004”. The study was the first of its kind and was intended to be used as a basis for policy development. 561 lesbians were surveyed.

69.3% of lesbians who were surveyed reported having been troubled by sexuality in their teen years. 95% of the surveyed lesbians reported having been in a relationship, most of which occurred for the first time in their teen years also. Due to homophobia they experienced, lesbians experienced difficulties with coming out. They expressed fear of being punished, fired, and stigmatized. Some lesbians expressed threats of being outed, sexual violence, and blackmail. 90.8% of lesbians who were harmed did not seek help from the police. These instances and others brought about mental and emotional difficulties for lesbians in South Korea. Lesbians expressed trouble with hiding relationships, internalized homophobia, and relationships with their families.[26]

The study found:[26]

1. 69.3% of lesbians experienced trouble with their sexual identity as a teenager

2. 74.7% felt pain in their familial relationships

3. 67.4% experienced emotional pain when family or friends expressed homophobia

4. 12.9% of those who expressed discrimination faced sexual violence

Kirikiri is the first lesbian rights movement group in South Korea. It formed in November 1994 as a separation from a larger lesbian and gay Korean group, Chodonghoe. A defining event in Kirikiri’s history occurred in 2001 when Suk Ja Kang, a representative from the Korean Association of Women’s Studies (KAWS) argued in a paper titled “Critical Study of Lesbian Feminism: A Comparison with Korean Women’s Experience” that lesbians are an abnormal group in Korean society created as a “product of Western theory” and should be excluded from feminist discourse.[26] The exclusion of lesbians from women's movements was a factor that inspired resistance from Kirikiri members. The homophobia presented in this paper at the Fall Annual Conference compelled Kirikiri to demand KAWS withdraw its claims. However, Kang refused and responded by saying that Kirikiri members should present their opposing thoughts at future conferences.

In addition to experiencing exclusion from the KAWS, Kirikiri faced homophobic backlash from the Korean Foundation for Women (KFW). The KFW refused to authorize funding for Kirikiri claiming that Kirikiri was a "lesbian organization" and as such, could not be considered a "women's organization".[26] Kirikiri was the first lesbian organization to apply for the fund, but the KFW rendered lesbians as sexual minorities but not women. In response, Kirikiri made a public statement. Propelled by the backlash, the Korean Foundation for Women allocated the fund to a sexual minority group three years later in 2005. Kirikiri’s resistance brought Korean lesbians out of social erasure. Eventually, Kirikiri changed names. The organization is presently known as the Lesbian Counseling Center in South Korea.

In 2005, Project L was the first exhibition organized by openly bisexual women and lesbian artists in South Korea. The Project L exhibition was initially was supposed to take place at the 2004 Wolgyung Festival. However, a week before the opening, the organizers of the event canceled the exhibition. They claimed that the scope of the exhibition did not fit the theme of that year which was the promotion of “positive images of the natural female body.”[27] Some lesbians and bisexual women who showcased their art opted to limit publicity in art magazines because they feared opposition from other feminist artists in the art community. Project L increased visibility for queer women in Korea, but the fear of social repercussions was still alive. Project L was showcased at Konkuk University where artists were also fearful of homophobic violence from students who attended the university. In 2008, a second exhibition called Gender Spectrum followed Project L.