LGBTQ community celebrates 11th annual Korean Queer Culture Festival

Posted on : 2010-06-16 12:17 KST Modified on : 2019-10-19 20:29 KST
The festival has continued to be one of the most visible events for S.Korea’s LGBTQ community
 June 12.
June 12.

World Cup festivities and unrelenting rain did not keep the LGBTQ community and allies from turning out in strong numbers for the annual Korean Queer Culture Festival Parade on Saturday, June 12. This marked the 11th year for the Korean Queer Culture Festival (KQCF), this year called “Outing.” Crowds of participants brought spirited enthusiasm and solidarity to the celebration that took place by the stream in downtown Seoul’s Jongno District.

A stage was set up for performances on the plaza where festival participants gathered prior to the parade. The enthusiastic crowd cheered as dancers and performers excited the audience. Organizations that set up booths along the plaza included Baram Sory, the Korean Gay Men’s Human Rights Group, the Korean Lesbian Foundation, the Lesbian Counseling Center in South Korea, Korean Womenlink, Outeen, Unninetwork and Project Butchway 2010 film studio.

Also expressing support were the minor opposition Democratic Labor Party (DLP) and New Progressive Party (NPP), who produced and hung banners to commemorate the occasion. The DLP’s banners read, “Stop the provocation of hatred of gay men and lesbians.” The NPP set up a booth and also made banners and dozens of individual signs stating, “We are a home for the queer community!’

As evidenced by the title of the culture festival, the word queer has been reclaimed by a number of members the LGBTQ community, especially in circles of academia.

In attendance at the parade were both Koreans and individuals from a diverse range of countries.

Justin Gray, a model and entertainer from Los Angeles who has been in South Korea for just over a month on holiday and said he attended the event Saturday after feeling disappointed that he could not attend the pride festivities in L.A. that took place the same weekend.

Gray conveyed that he understood the obstacles faced by South Koreans and said, “I am all about overcoming things as an American; being gay, I got kicked out of my home at the age of 16, but I have made a career for myself and I am well-respected amongst my peers.”

“I find Koreans just really welcoming and warm, and just real troopers,” said Gray. “They are out here in the pouring down rain, and we are just having a good time.” Gray added, “I’m here to really hold hands with and support my brothers and sisters here throughout Korea.”

Members of LGBTQ organizations in South Korea also attended the festival together with fellow group members.

Christina Balint from Toronto, 27, has been in South Korea for nearly 3 years. She is the coordinator for Busansisters, a group for English-speaking queer women in Busan. The group traveled to Seoul for the festival and paid tribute to a famous tradition at international pride festivals.

“We’re doing Dykes on Bikes, so we are trying to integrate this very important cultural aspect of Pride to Seoul’s Pride,” said Balint. The group, however, put a their own twist on the tradition, “We are not using motorbikes, we’re using pedal bikes.”

The group biked nearly an hour and a half in the pouring rain from the Han River on their bikes.

Balint said about the festival, “I’m out to my parents and a lot of my family and friends know, but I know that a lot of Korean people don’t get that chance and that freedom, so I feel like a lot of us here support them and what they’re going through.”

South Korean participants were also well-versed in obstacles faced by South Korea’s LGBTQ community.

Lexi, a Korean volunteer at the festival who is currently studying abroad in the United States, said, “Some older men came here and they asked, ‘What is this?’ and we said, ‘A queer festival,’ and they said, ‘What is queer?’”

“That is what actually happens, and people can’t come out because they face so much social discrimination,” she said.

Indeed, in South Korea it remains a common experience to hear denials of the existence of a queer community in the conservative country, especially among older generations.

Lexi also said that people in South Korea are very slowly changing their views about the LGBT community, as the festival enters its 11th year and it marks 10 years since the first widely-known celebrity, actor Hong Seok-cheon, came out in the conservative country. She said after thinking for a moment, “Still, there are not many changes in visibility, because it’s really hard to come out in Korea.”

The parade was the last event for the two-week festival that launched with the “G Revolution” opening party on May 29. Film screenings ran as a part of the film festival from June 4 through 8, and there were also a number of lectures and events. The festival closed with a party directly following the parade in Seoul’s Itaewon district.

Please direct questions or comments to [englishhani@hani.co.kr]