By Bae Ji-sook
Staff Reporter
An officer assigned to the riot police has openly declared his homosexuality and vowed to fight social prejudice against ``sexual minorities.''
On Dec. 30, Private Kim Hyun-jong (not his real name) posted an article about his homosexuality on the online riot police community Web site. He is the second policeman from the squad to have openly come out after YooJeong Min-shik identified himself as being gay and refused to finish his service term for which he was prisoned in 2006. In South Korea, men can serve in the riot police as part of their mandatory military service.
In the article, Kim said that coming out was not easy, but what was more important was that he faced discrimination and insults, that should be outlawed at military camps.
Kim, who works at a police station in Yongsan, Seoul, said his coming out was almost an ``outing'' (forced to make a coming out by others) after some fellow policemen read some private information he had saved on his computer. He said he first tried to deny it, but later made up his mind to declare his sexual identity.
However, he said his boldness wasn't well received by others. ``Some almost put a restraining order on me, and I heard many talking behind my back describing me as a `dirty' gay man,'' he said.
``But I am a Korean man living in Korea and I have no reason to flinch. I will struggle against prejudice for all homosexual people and me,'' he said, asking for others to participate.
In fact, the military is one of the toughest places for homosexuals. According to military law, homosexuality is a violation of rules banning sodomy and is also described as a kind of mental disorder. Those revealed to be gay were sent to mental hospitals or prisons because of these clauses.
There were many gay men suffering under this law and a highly discriminatory atmosphere against them in the barracks. One soldier attempted suicide several times after telling his bosses he was gay. He later claimed that he was forced to submit photographs of himself having sexual intercourse with a man to prove he was gay. Then, he was forced to take an AIDS test and was publicly humiliated.
In a separate case, a mother filed a petition to the National Human Rights Commission last October claiming her son was sexually harassed after coming out. She said her 20-year-old son was forced to get into bed with his superiors or to ``touch'' them.
Human rights and gay rights groups protested against the military being rigid, but the Ministry of Defense's new management rules on homosexuality show that people still have little understanding toward gay men. They declare that gays who are willing to turn straight will be fully supported by the government, indicating the government still considers being gay a disease.
``The current law on homosexual management is just another way of classifying or segregating gays instead of treating them equally. There is hardly any education offered to soldiers to help them understand homosexuality,'' Chang Byung-kwon, a gay rights activist, said.
According to the Democratic Labor Party, there are an assumed 4 million potentially gay. Many of them are male, who are subject to military service. ``Would you punish them all? Or label all of them lunatics?'' Kim Hyun-jong said.
bjs@koreatimes.co.kr
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