Lee Hae-rin is a City Desk reporter at The Korea Times, covering social issues, tourism and taekwondo. She is passionate about speaking up for the rights of minorities, including women, LGBTQ+, people with disabilities and animals as well as discovering the latest makgeolli trend in town. Feel free to reach her at lhr@koreatimes.co.kr.
US official meets Korean LGBTQ activists in Seoul
U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman, second from left, meets with Korean LGBTQ community leaders to discuss the sexual minorities' human rights at Habib House in central Seoul, Tuesday. Captured from Twitter
By Lee Hae-rin
By Lee Hae-rin
U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman met with Korean LGBTQ community leaders during her visit to Seoul, Tuesday, as a part of the Joe Biden administration's pro-LGBTQ foreign policy.
According to a media note from the U.S. Department of State released on June 3, Sherman met with Korean LGBTQ activists “to highlight the importance of diversity, equity and inclusion and mark Pride Month.”
Sherman's visit to Korea from June 5 to 7 was part of her trip to the Indo-Pacific, which also included the Philippines, Vietnam and Laos. It follows last month's U.S.-ASEAN Special Summit, and Biden's visit to Korea and Japan.
This is the third official meeting of high-ranking U.S. government personnel with the Korean LGBTQ activists. Former Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and the U.S. Department of State's first-ever special envoy for the human rights of LGBTQ people Randy Berry held previous meetings in the capital in August 2015, and February 2016, respectively.
The latest meeting followed a request made last month by the Center for Military Human Rights Korea (CMHRK), a governance body under the Ministry of National Defense. CMHRK representative Lim Tae-hoon said the center sent a letter of request to the U.S. Embassy in Seoul and the U.S. Department of State asking for Biden to meet with Korean LGBTQ activists during his visit to Korea last month.
The Koreans invited to the event included religious leaders, human rights activists and celebrities advocating for LGBTQ rights, including Lim, Korea's first transgender celebrity Harisu and gay TV personality Hong Seok-cheon. The event was closed to the media.
On the U.S. side, Sherman was joined by U.S. Charge d'Affaires Chris Del Corso and other embassy officials.
Prior to the meeting, Sherman and Ha raised the Progress Pride Flag along with the U.S. flag at Habib House, the residence for the U.S. ambassador to Korea in central Seoul.
“I was honored to raise the Progress flag today at the U.S. Chief of Mission residence in Seoul as a symbol of the Biden-Harris Administration's commitment to advance the human rights of LGBTQI+ people everywhere,” Sherman tweeted, Tuesday, along with a picture of herself and Ha raising the flag.
The Progress Pride Flag is a redesign of the rainbow flag that has been the symbol of the LGBTQ human rights movement worldwide since 1978. It combines the six stripes of the rainbow flag with a chevron featuring black, brown, light blue, pink and white stripes to be more inclusive of marginalized people of color, trans people, those living with HIV/AIDS and those who have been lost.
The Korean LGBTQ activists and U.S. government officials held a discussion on LGBTQ human rights in Korea and anti-discrimination measures for them.
During the discussion, the participants mentioned the need for the prompt passage of an anti-discrimination law and expressed concerns over the Seoul Metropolitan Government's possible disapproval for the Seoul Queer Culture Festival to use Seoul Square in July, Lim said.
A rainbow flag hangs on the facade of the U.S. Embassy in Seoul in this photo taken on July 15, 2018. The Embassy has hung the symbol of LGBTI community in solidarity with sexual minorities in time for Pride Month every year since 2017. Korea Times photo by Choi Won-suk
The U.S. Embassy in Seoul has continuously been expressing solidarity with the LGBTQ community in the country.
The embassy has participated in the annual Korea Queer Culture Festival in Seoul since 2014 along with the French and German diplomatic offices in the country. The embassy has displayed the rainbow flag on its office building in downtown Seoul's Gwanghwamun in time for Pride Month every year since 2017.