Churches up ante against Queer Festival

By Kim Se-jeong

Some conservative churches in Korea are stepping up protests against the upcoming Korea Queer Festival.

The annual event for sexual minorities is scheduled to begin in Seoul on June 9.

At Seoul Plaza where the opening ceremony is planned and on adjacent streets, placards are hung with messages condemning the Seoul Metropolitan Government (SMG) for permitting the festival organizers to hold an opening ceremony at the plaza. Christians have also been staging rallies to get SMG to cancel the permission.

The 16th annual festival consists of a parade on June 13 and a film festival from June 18 to 21. The organizers said they are working on other programs but refused to reveal details due to the threats from churches. Queer Festival takes place in other parts of the world.

Last week, a coalition of Christian organizations filed a petition with the police to cancel the festival. In the petition, the coalition argued “the Queer Festival will make people raise their eyebrows. Indecent activity by transgenders and homosexuals should be banned.”

The organizers say the church’s reaction is hard to understand.

“Those churches oppose the event without good reasons,” said an anonymous member of the festival’s organizing team. “Some people say we had a nude parade in the past, but it’s not true. It depends on how you look at it.”

The mounting opposition from the churches has puts the city government in a quandary. It said it can’t cancel the festival because permission was given on a first-come-first-served basis.

This year marks the first time that the festival will take place at Seoul Plaza. Previously, the festival took place in the Sinchon and Hongdae areas.

Last year, churches also pushed the city government to discard the Charter of Human Rights for Citizens, which included a clause stating that a person has “the right not to be discriminated against based on sexual orientation or sexual identity.” Mayor Park Won-soon decided not to adopt the charter after the protest. The Constitutional Court is currently examining whether Seoul’s decision violated people’s constitutional rights after one local rights group filed a petition against the decision in March.

The festival isn’t the first event with regards to sexual minorities in the city.

On Saturday, hundreds gathered outside Seoul Station calling for equal treatment. It took place on the eve of the International Day Against Homophobia, Bi-Phobia and Trans-Phobia, Sunday.

Korea is one of a few countries where public opinion on sexual minorities is improving quickly. Conservative churches lead the opposition. According to a Pew Research survey last year, 59 percent of Koreans answered homosexuality should not be accepted in the country. In 2007, 77 percent of responders said the same.