By Lee Kyung-min
The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) said Wednesday that it plans to recommend municipal governments to promptly enact anti-discrimination ordinances. The move comes amid growing calls from Christian groups to cancel any such legislation for “promoting homosexuality.”
Any attempts seeking to institute measures, including setting up ordinances, to ban discrimination based on sexual orientation has failed due to fierce opposition from Christian groups that claim homosexuality is a sin which deserves moral condemnation and punishment, not protection.
The human rights watchdog said it would ask 144 regional governments to set up ordinances to better consult and review human rights issues and monitor violations. It will also ask municipal governments that have already set up such ordinances to establish a standing legal consultative body. Daegu, and North and South Gyeongsang provinces have yet to set up such bodies.
The measure followed a recent petition filed with the NHRC by a coalition of human rights organizations from nine metropolitan governments against Christian groups in South Chungcheong Province. The religious groups launched a massive campaign against the move by the municipal government to enact an ordinance, claiming “Homosexuality causes acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS).”
In the petition, the rights coalition comprised of representatives from Seoul, Gwangju, Ulsan amd Jeju, and Gyeonggi, Gangwon, South Chungcheong, and North and South Jeolla provinces urged the human rights protection agency to carry out its duty to prevent rights violations.
“We express deep concern against organized efforts to spread homophobia,” the coalition said in a statement. “We demand the NHRC come up with measures to make ordinances binding and to continue its duty to safeguard human rights.”
Christian groups have been continuing campaigns nationwide claiming homosexuality is a disease that requires treatment.
“Society should eliminate the promiscuous and depraved sexual activity for good,” said Lim Kyung-ho, a pastor leading the groups at a press conference in front of the Korean National Commission for UNESCO in Myeongdong, central Seoul, June 29.
“Korea is a Confucian country known for its politeness and high moral standards. We cannot tolerate Western countries’ attempt to normalize or even glorify what is essentially a sexually deviant act of a few,” he added.
The group claimed the rights of anti-gay groups should be protected. “We will protest any organization seeking to advance their political agenda in open settings,” he added, in an apparent reference to the “Queer Parade” slated for July 15 near Seoul City Hall.
“It is simply unbelievable how bigoted they are. They claim that their right to hate should be respected to the extent that a certain group of people should suffer enormously only because of who they are. I don’t understand how they do not see this,” an activist for a minorities group said.