The sun shone brightly on June 1, as the street between Jonggak and Euljiro 1-ga Stations in Seoul lit up with the colors of the rainbow. Dozens of tents lined the street as thousands of people waved brightly colored signs and celebrated the 25th Seoul Queer Culture Festival.
From the smiling faces and exuberant atmosphere, you wouldn’t think such an event would be a wellspring of political controversy.
However, despite its quarter-century history in South Korea, the Queer Festival and LGBTQ+ issues, in general, have been highly controversial. Queer festivals, anti-discrimination laws and marriage equality are hot political debates, while online discussions routinely devolve into dirty fights. As a proud ally, someone who is not part of the LGBTQ+ community but supports it, I wish to focus on why LGBTQ+ issues have become such a volatile subject and my proposal for mediation of this problem.
“Obscene festival” is a common insult thrown by hate groups toward queer festivals. I have friends at my university who regularly call gay people “perverted freaks.” The SQCF routinely gets permit applications rejected by the Seoul government on the grounds that it “violates social norms.” You’d think from this treatment that the SQCF is some obscene, profane event. But the reality is that the SQCF is an inviting place where friends, families and individuals celebrate who they are. College friends running a tent for their college club, students exploring tents run by foreign embassies and human rights groups, and families with little children waving pride flags are the scenery of the SQCF. Some of the most heartwarming scenes come from Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays Korea, an ally group made up of parents of LGBTQ+ people. They offer free hugs to anyone at the festival, a comfort difficult to find for those who have been pushed away by their families because of their identity. The religious community is also sizable, with many Catholic, Protestant, Buddhist and other religious groups holding prayers and blessings for those who cannot receive them elsewhere. For LGBTQ+ people who are religious, those prayers are moments of deep comfort. Religious ceremonies, song and dance performances, human rights booths and foreign embassies all create an environment of love, safety and acceptance, not the sexual imagery that people assume. Participating in a Pride festival cannot lead you to the conclusion that they are “obscene festivals.”
Another line of attack against LGBTQ+ events is the question, “Why do they show up in public places and disturb the peace?” When the first Daejeon Queer Festival was announced this year, it faced such opposition. Many who think themselves moderates often use that argument, saying they have no problem with the LGBTQ+ community but only wish they wouldn’t make a public scene. But if you are willing to accept people only when they stay quiet and out of sight, that isn’t a moderate stance. LGBTQ+ people hiding their true selves from society 364 days a year, celebrating one day of Pride Parade are not “making a scene.” As members of society, we have every right to show who we are. Saying that LGBTQ+ people need to hide themselves for others’ convenience is discriminatory. To the outsider, Pride Parades and LGBTQ+ struggles can be just another annoying headline or eyesore. But to the people they affect, these events are a matter of everyday life. The festivals represent being able to live as an equal member of society.
Many people miss this human aspect of Pride events. Pride festivals are safe spaces for all people to celebrate who they are. The inappropriate imagery associated with Pride festivals is a depiction intended to silence the movement. As most people only see them through media depiction, they develop an incorrect idea of what the LGBTQ+ community is like. This leads to biases, fear, hate and alienation of LGBTQ+ people from society. LGBTQ+ people become only a headline, a political debate that people want to avoid. But LGBTQ+ people lead lives just like everyone else. They go to school, go to work, have families, make friends, laugh, cry, love and hate just the same. Any conflict resolution for LGBTQ+ issues requires that people understand this.
In short, due to media bias and political alienation, the LGBTQ+ community people “know” is a dehumanized group. Instead of being seen for the autonomous people they are, they are seen as an annoyance, an obscenity. But you can’t know them through a news article, drama or online video. To know them, you must see firsthand the people they are. Come see who we are at a Pride event. We are not a dangerous “other,” not some vague threat or nuisance. We are as diverse, layered and complex as everyone else. We are people just like you, so come see us as people.
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This piece is one of the three winning entries in the inaugural student column contest, co-hosted by The Korea Herald and the SNU Quill, the sole English newspaper of Seoul National University. The column has been edited for clarity and brevity. The writer is a sophomore in Seoul National University’s Department of Anthropology. He can be reached at hmmk2004@snu.ac.kr. The views expressed here are the writer's own. – Ed.
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