Seoul Pride: Showing Up Without Permission
Pride 2024 marks the 25th anniversary of Seoul Pride. Last week, approximately 150,000 people showed up to celebrate the festival despite the South Korean authorities denying permits to the event organizers for the second year in a row. In April, the Seoul Queer Culture Festival (SQCF) files a complaint with the South Korean National Human Rights Commission, stating that the Seoul Metropolitan Government has denied the SQCF permission to rent venues for their events for times already in 2024 alone.
Rather than gathering in Seoul Plaza, the event intended to host the Pride festivities this year, participants marched on the streets instead. Many wore orange, which was nominated as the festival’s official color this year.
Despite cultural shifts in support of the country’s LGBTQ+ community, South Korea has not legalized same-sex marriage or made any moves to ban discrimination on the basis of gender identity or sexual orientation. As South Koreans took to the streets for Seoul Pride this year, so did a congregation of folks objecting to the rainbow display. A counter-protest featuring approximately 20,000 participants also took to the streets, carrying signs with pro-religious, homophobic messages on them.
The situation surrounding Seoul Pride this year embodies the critical need for Pride events to continue on the global stage. Birthed as a form of protest to stand up for LGBTQ+ rights everywhere, the LGBTQ+ community in South Korea and the organizers of Seoul Pride need this month more than ever.
At a press conference held during the event, SQFC Organizing Committee Chairperson, Yang Sun-Woo said that this year’s event, and the way it all unfolded politically, is a message to the South Korean society at large.
“We think that sending out a message of ‘queer is everywhere’ is the most important,” Yang Sun-Woo told AJU Press. “We wish to create a society where anyone can say yes to queer without fear of discrimination.”
The struggle for the LGBTQ+ community in Korea continues as advocacy groups push for a comprehensive anti-discrimination law to be enacted. While attitudes in South Korean society are evolving, the community still faces opposition from older people who believe that homosexuality is one of the main causes of Korea’s population decline.
Watch this space as more information regarding the situation in South Korea unfolds.
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Featured Image: Anthony Wallace | AFP. Image via Getty Images
