Queer festival vote turns contentious
More than 60 percent of posters opposed the annual Pride parade in a poll on the Seoul city government’s online forum. The poll was closed Monday after hate comments flooded the website. / Screen capture from mvoting.seoul.go.kr
By You Soo-sun
An online poll on the annual queer parade in Seoul was disabled Monday after hate comments flooded the site. News about the poll, which has been on the city government’s online forum site since July 16, went viral just last week after it spread to websites run by ultra-conservatives here including Ilbe.
The forum asked, “What do you think about the Queer Culture Festival in Korea?” It offered respondents two voting options: “support” and “oppose.” By Monday when it closed, 59,731 people had voted; 33,561 people or 61 percent voted “oppose” while 23,330 people or 39 percent voted “support.”
According to a city official, a member of the public set up the poll on the city-run website seeking others’ thoughts on the parade. But the government took it down after hate comments flooded the forum, leading to phone complaints.
“We decided to take action because of the comments,” the official said. “Hearing people were hurt by the forum, the author of the poll requested we take it down, fearing it was heading in an unintended direction.”
The poll was shut down prior to its original deadline, slated for Oct 22.
The official further noted the forum only became heated after last Saturday as members of conservative websites shared news about it encouraging others to vote against the festival. The forum saw little participation in the preceding weeks. It was also spread through conservative Christian websites. Later, it gained attention from LGBT community members, who rushed to compete with the overwhelming opposition votes. They did gain some momentum, with the supporting views going up in number from less than 2 percent to almost 40 percent from Saturday to Monday.
Simon Hunter-Williams was one of the few who phoned the city government, seeking moderation and an apology for the hate comments that flooded the website. “They were nasty, filled with hatred and accusations,” Hunter-Williams told The Korea Times in a phone interview Tuesday. In regards to the action taken by the government he said, “I guess it’s fair enough, but I did expect some sort of an apology for failing to moderate it.”
Some of the comments he mentioned were: “The worst of human decadence is homosexuality. A society that calls it a culture is a crazy one.” Another read, “Gay Mayor Park Won-soon must go!” Many others made false accusations, such as that homosexuality is the cause of HIV and AIDS.
But many were also offended by the poll. “Sexual identity is not something that’s up for agreement and opposition. Just as me being a Korean national cannot be agreed to or opposed to, it’s just what it is,” one read. “The festival exists for (LGBTQ members) to display (their) identity because their human rights are not protected, as this clearly shows.”
Although the government took down comments, the poll result as of Monday evening is available at:
https://mvoting.seoul.go.kr/mvoting/voting/ourselves/selectOurselves.do?vote_no=41329&fref=gc
The government official explained the posts and comments are monitored by about 40 volunteer citizens, who may request removal if comments go against the forum standards. These violations include directly attacking people based on their traits or posting defamatory remarks aimed at specific figures. All registered members of the voting website may participate in its polls and unregistered members may participate through their phone or social media accounts.