Due to the special political condition on the Korean Peninsula - continuing ideological conflict between the two Koreas - infringement of individual human rights for “national security reasons” was often seen as inevitable or even justifiable for decades. Thanks to the ceaseless efforts of the public and intellectuals for democratization through student, labor, and civil movements, Korean society has witnessed explosive changes since the 1990’s. Regrettably, however, the still unresolved national division acts to maintain a distorted state in which the National Security Act (http://www.nis.go.kr) exists above the Constitution, whose aim lies in protecting the basic rights of the people.

Nevertheless, the democratization movement of the 1980’s and 1990’s empowered the Korean gay community, completely silenced and negated until then, finally to speak up and to establish Chodong-hoe, the first gay rights activist group in the country. Later divided into Chingusai (“Between Friends”) Korean Gay Men’s Coalition (http://chingusai.net) and Korean Female Sexual Minorities' Rights Group Kirikiri (http://www.kirikiri.org), it paved the way for currently active LGBT rights activist groups such as the Lesbian and Gay Human Rights Federation (http://outpridekorea.com), LGBT magazine Buddy (http://buddy79.com), Korean Sexual Minority Culture and Rights Center (http://kscrc.org), and LGBT Korea (http://lgbt.or.kr).

Up to the 1990’s, the Korean gay community remained strictly hidden from the public. It consisted merely of train stations, parks, and gay bars tucked away in certain districts of large cities such as Sindang-dong and Nagwon-dong in Seoul. The community was completely ignored or, at best, covered by the media and the press in racy and distorted reports. Consequently, homosexuals did not even dare to voice their opinions. All that changed with the establishment Chingusai (1994), which openly claimed gay rights and made discourses on homosexuality public. What aided such changes was the wide distribution of PC communication services and the Internet, thanks to the government’s informationalization policy. As a result, hitherto silenced Korean homosexuals were able to create their own space online and even to contribute to offline activities, thus leading to the speedy expansion of the gay community itself. Such spread of the Internet also enabled the younger generation to establish a semi-public gay ghetto in Itaewon, a tourist district in Seoul. Today, homosexuality generates a variety of social discourses and even serves as a trend in cultural codes in Korea.

Currently, the Korean gay community consists of: LGBT rights activist groups; entertainment establishments that cater to gay men and women such as bars and baths in large cities (Seoul, Pusan, Taejon, Taegu, and Kwangju); and chat rooms, personal homepages, and Internet BBS. The rapid quantitative growth of the community online, however, has not been accompanied by corresponding growth in quality. Consequently, the Korean gay community is very loosely organized and has yet to create a healthy and diverse gay culture that promotes and protects LGBT rights. Likewise, members of the community are highly fragmented and disparate.

Nonetheless, quantitative growth has resulted in some noteworthy accomplishments. The record of Korean LGBT activists’ struggle against the government and existing laws is impressive indeed. As may be expected, the Korean gay community has not simply progressed and expanded since the 1990’s because Confucianism and Christianity, two dominant ideologies in Korea today, continue to view homosexuality as unnatural or ungodly. A good example is the litigation involving Exzone (http://exzone.com), a Korean gay BBS, which has attracted international attention. The Youth Protection Law (Juvenile Protection Act) of Korea designates homosexuality as “harmful to minors” and censors the Internet, forcibly closing gay adolescent group’s online BBS and labeling their contents as “unfit for minors.” All LGBT rights activist groups in Korea therefore protested against the government’s closure of Exzone and oppression of gay adolescents’ Internet sites and endeavored to demonstrate that information on homosexuality was not harmful to juveniles. Regrettably, however, they lost the case and are now awaiting the Constitutional Court’s (http://www.ccourt.go.kr) judgment on the constitutionality of the Youth Protection Law.

Since then, Korean LGBT rights activist groups have unceasingly demanded the government to drop the anti-homosexual clause from the Youth Protection Law, which requires all public facilities open to adolescents such as Internet cafes to install Internet classification and censorship softwares. Due to this very clause, numerous sites providing general information on homosexuality or created by LGBT activist groups have been classified as “adult” sites and filtered out. With Kirikiri and the LGHRF at the center, LGBT rights activist groups therefore appealed to the National Human Rights Commission (http://www.humanrights.go.kr) regarding such softwares and their manufacturers and the Youth Protection Law itself. Recently, the NHRC stated that general information on homosexuality was not harmful to adolescents and advised the Commission on Youth Protection (http://www.youth.go.kr), responsible for the Youth Protection Law, to delete the anti-homosexual clause as it was liable to infringe on individuals’ basic rights. The CYP duly agreed to comply with the NHRC’s suggestion.

Except military laws on sodomy (military service is compulsory for all able-bodied men), no Korean law even alluded to homosexuality until the NHRC included a clause prohibiting discrimination on the basis of an individual’s sexual orientation in the NHRC Act, legislated in 2001. Such judiciary improvement has brought about a growing movement for the legislation of a law specifically prohibiting discrimination against homosexuals.

Unlike its counterparts in the West, the Korean LGBT community has yet to experience physical violence motivated by homophobia such as gay bashing or vandalism directed at gay bars. This is not, however, because Korean society accepts sexual minorities as its rightful members or is exceptionally tolerant. Rather, the reason lies in its two-sided attitude toward homosexuality. On one hand, some progressive intellectuals view LGBT rights as a measure of social “progress.” The vast majority of the public, however, still considers homosexuals as perpetrators of abnormal, revolting, and subhuman sexual acts. This is because homosexuality is unmentionable and therefore must never become visible in Korea. While such oppression is unique in that it takes the form solely of moral or religious criticism as opposed to physical violence, it is all the more dangerous and harmful because it leads to deep-rooted prejudice and thorough discrimination. Moreover, because family honor is an extremely important value in Korea, not a few gay men and women have been rejected and cast out by their families after coming out to them?honesty, unfortunately, is not always the best policy.

For these reasons, we strongly advise all LGBT friends who visit or live in Korea never to come out within relationships, networks, or organizations that are public, official, professional, or related to their subsistence. This is because you are very likely to face considerable discrimination but social mechanisms or institutions that can redress such discrimination are nearly non-existent. For instance, a Korean television actor who publicly came out in 2000 was immediately dismissed from all programs. Of course, you may freely express your sexual orientation among very close?and younger?friends and within the gay community in Seoul (Jongro and Itaewon districts as the two centers) and elsewhere.

Nevertheless, we believe that such conditions will improve, however gradually and unnoticeably. Starting on June 21, 2003, the 4th Korean Queer Cultural Festival “Mujigae” (http://www.kqcf.org) will be held in Jongro and other districts of Seoul. The event will comprise a variety of activities including a street parade, a dance party, an exhibition, and a queer film festival. The LGBT community will continue to raise its voice and to win its rightful position in Korean society.

※Chingusai Korean Gay Men’s Coalition
On a lighter note, we wish to clear a minor cultural difference that may surprise uninformed LGBT friends from abroad, especially North America. You will notice a great deal of physical contact between Koreans of the same sex in public, particularly between young females. Acceptable contact includes walking arm in arm, holding hands, and touching or stroking body parts (but, of course, not hugging or kissing). Such behavior should not, however, be seen as a display of (homo)sexuality. As in many other parts of the world, the unspoken social custom in Korea dictates that physical contact between members of the same sex only expresses friendliness and is therefore strictly non-sexual and “safe” (note that the slightest possibility of homosexuality is not even imagined here). As for touching between men and women, it is still considered too intimate, sexual, and thus “indiscreet” or “dangerous,” though young people are becoming increasingly bold about publicly expressing affection for their (heterosexual) lovers. Of course, such contact occurs only between close friends, colleagues, and family members?the condition being emotional and social closeness or equality. While Korean gay lovers therefore are very careful about their public behavior, it is also possible for them to engage in physical contact openly since they can say, “We’re just friends.”