hankyoreh

By Jung Hwan-bong, Bang Jun-ho and Lee Jae-uk, staff reporters

■ Gay saunas: Why the crackdown?　

On Aug. 21, Hankyoreh reporters visited one of Seoul’s gay saunas. The police had staged a bust there after a TV news broadcast on the “emergence of gay prostitution.” The owner, 48-year-old “Kim Hyun-cheol,” was booked without detention at Gangnam Police Station on Aug. 14 on charges of violating the Act on the Regulation of Amusement Businesses Affecting Public Morals.

The broadcast in question made no distinction between places actually brokering commercial sex among homosexuals and places where gay people simply meet. Both were depicted as settings where unsavory and illegal acts were taking place. But “lounges” and saunas have long served as places for gay people to meet. No prostitution took place at Kim’s sauna.

“Gay people do meet and spend the night at our sauna, but we don’t have any prostitutes working here,” Kim said.

The police agreed, charging him only with violating Article 3, Item 2 of the Public Morals Act, which bans “conducting any lewd acts or arranging or providing a service thereof.” It is a charge that typically applies for acts such as showing X-rated movies at a motel, and it is clearly distinct from Item 1 of the same article prohibiting “arranging sexual traffic.”

Although the police essentially treated meetings between gay people as an inherently “lewd” act, Kim has not protested. “What’s the point?” he asked. “They see gay people meeting as the same thing as heterosexuals engaging in prostitution or going to a ‘lounge’ or sauna. It’s best if people don’t know about it.”

The police who conduct the busts are generally aware of the situation for gay people. Some said the media reports were a major factor in the decision to go after the saunas.

“There have only been two crackdowns [in the precinct] on gay-related establishments in the past two years, including this one,” said a source at the Gangnam Police Station. “We only went there because the press said prostitution was going on. In the case of Mr. Kim’s sauna, the offenses warranted a fine at most, meaning, no brokering of prostitution was found. It‘s not high on our list of priorities.”

Elsewhere in Seoul, Seocho Police Station recently began inspections of local businesses that cater to gay customers, but didn’t find any violations of the law.

“This is the first time we’ve inspected gay businesses of part of a crackdown,” said a source at the station on condition of anonymity. “We went because of the news reports, and we didn’t find any violations. We don’t have any plans for continued busts, like we have to get rid of all the places where gay people meet or something.”

The source went on to say, “As long as there are no legal issues, I think there needs to be a kind of outlet where minority groups [like gay people] can get together.”

■ Why do they go to saunas?　

Gay people have reasons for wanting places of their own. One of the biggest ones is the attitude of the “straight world.” Many complain about the lack of places where they can express themselves as they are.

“Gay people can’t hold hands or make even the smallest shows of affection on the street like straights do because of the dirty looks they get,” said Jeong Min-seok, an activist with Solidarity for LGBT Human Rights of Korea. “Ever since the 1970s, when the situation for the gay rights movement was pretty grim, gay saunas and lounges have been important places for gay people to avoid the eyes of the straight world.”

Seoul‘s Jongno neighborhood has been home to many of these meeting places since the 1970s. One of the best-known examples was the now-defunct Pagoda Theater. So many people gathered there that gay bars began opening in the surrounding neighborhood.

Away from the main thoroughfares of Jongno lies a narrow alleyway, just wide enough that one can touch the walls on both sides. It travels past five or six outdoor air conditioners to a shabby-looking building. Down at the basement level is the gay DVD room run by 61-year-old “Jeong Yeon-woo.”

“I picked a secluded spot on purpose because straight people find it strange to see only gay people visiting,” Jeong said. “The building’s owners knew we were looking for a place like that, so they set the rent high.”

Jeong’s DVD room doesn’t look much different from the typical DVD rooms found near many universities in Korea.

“They’re places where straights can watch a movie in comfort, rest, and if they meet someone nice, maybe they’ll make love,” he said. “The world may have changed, but it still isn’t easy for two men to sit in a coffee shop and spend a romantic time together.”

Park Hae-min, director of the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) human rights committee at Hanyang University, agreed.

“In some ways, it’s difficult for gay people to meet out in the open in places like cafes and movie theaters,” Park said. “So they go to gay saunas and bathhouses instead.”

“I think it’s a prejudice to say there’s a problem with adults meeting at places like that for consensual sex,” Park added.

Another reason for the establishments is the threat posed by some heterosexual people. “Hyun Su-min,” the 48-year-old manager of a gay lounge in Seocho, said her establishment is a “regular sauna, but it has a reputation for having a lot of gay customers.”

“At places like this, straight people will sometimes pretend to be gay, and if a gay person so much as touches them they’ll beat him up. They break him down like that, and then demand money from him, threatening to report him for sexual assault,” Hyun said. “Other gay people who see it are too scared to say anything, for fear they’ll end up being outed themselves over an incident like that. This kind of thing happens all the time.”

According to Hyun, sexual assault is not a common occurrence among gay people.

“A lot of them are very mild, feminine people,” she said. “If you don’t like it, just say ‘no.’”

Kim Hyun-cheol, the owner of the sauna busted by Gangnam police, agreed that sexual assault was rare.

“In the case of men, they’re all strong, so it’s difficult to get someone to submit,” he said. “In my three years running a gay sauna, I’ve never seen anything like that.”

■ Where can gay people go?　

Love can be a beautiful thing, but it can also be ugly, or simply ordinary. Things are no different for gay people. They have no choice but to meet at special “gay saunas,” “gay lounges,” and “gay clubs.”

“We need to rid ourselves of this notion that gay people are going to these special, secret places to take part in their own ‘sex culture,’” said Kim Deok-jin, secretary-general of the Catholic Human Rights Committee. “It’s just like normal dates - drinking coffee at a cafe, watching movies, going for walks in the park. We need to stop oppressing gay people so they can enjoy these ordinary dating places.”

Indeed, many gay people are now leaving behind the isolated 1970s alleyways of Jongno in search of greater freedoms. On June 1, some 2,000 gay people and supporters gathered at the Walkable Street in front of Hongik University in Seoul for a gay parade. It was the event’s 14th year. On Sept. 7, Kim-Cho Gwang-su, a film director, and Kim Seung-hwan, head of the Rainbow Factory film company, plan to hold a public gay wedding.

Gay people are becoming bolder, and people are becoming more flexible in their views toward them. But the mainstream in South Korea is uncomfortable with homosexuality.

“A lot of the media try to portray the people who use gay lounges and places like that as ‘perverts’ and isolate them socially,” said Park Ji-hoon, a media studies professor at Korea University. “This kind of reporting can cement misunderstandings and prejudices, where all gay people are seen as only interested in sexual gratification.”

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