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| A gay man who asked to be named only with his initial J.W. marches at a pro-LGBT rally in Seoul in July. The sign he is holding reads "Courage for Equality." / Courtesy of Kang Josae |
Sexual minorities searching for 'inclusive' church
By Kang Hyun-kyung
Last year, a 24-year-old community worker who asked to be named only by her first name Ju-hee, chose to leave the church she had attended for 23 years since she was born. She found a new, small but "inclusive" church in Seoul's western part of Mapogu.
Her former church was a big one and she had many friends there.
"But I didn't feel that I belonged there," she told The Korea Times in a recent interview. "I felt like I was acting whenever I returned home from Sunday church services. My empty conversation with other church members kept playing in my mind… I couldn't speak about the topic that I wanted."
At her church, the topic she wanted to share with others was a forbidden one. She is a lesbian and wanted to talk about her sexual identity.
There was a time when she plucked up courage to address it. Pretending she was a heterosexual, she cautiously raised homosexuality as a topic to discuss. Other church members' reactions were almost identical. They echoed homosexuality is a sin and people who have such trait need to fix it. She was frustrated.
"From that moment, I began to doubt what good I would gain if I continue to go to the church where I can hardly share anything with others," she said.
Empty conversation continued in her on-campus Christian fellowship club she had been affiliated all during her college years. She said she had to endure awkward moments whenever she and others talked about sexual orientations.
"I didn't like what they said. As we shared little, there was frequent pauses in our conversations. I was the odd man out. I was uncomfortable and realized I couldn't stand it any longer," she said.
Ju-hee said she found she was different from her classmates when she was a high school student. "I was embarrassed when I realized I was a lesbian. The toughest thing was that I couldn't accept myself," she said.
A 26-year-old gay man who asked to be named only with his initials J.W. said he also left his former church that he had attended since he was young.
He said straight people's hatred of gays has traumatized him and he couldn't stand it. "They say homosexuals are nasty, unhealthy. Such an insult hurt me a lot," he said.
J.W. said Korean churches, particularly megachurches, are not a place for sexual minorities like him and that's why he chose to leave it seven years ago.
He said he had hard time figuring out why Protestant churches oppose the anti-discrimination bill. "The bill is all about protecting minorities and LGBT people are some of the minorities it strives to protect," he said. "I think the mainstream church leaders feel uncomfortable when someone addresses minority issues."
J.W. has been active in gay rights since he was a high school student. He joined a local human rights group when he attended high school. He served as president of an on-campus student club advocating rights of homosexuals last year, after coming out publicly when he was a teenager. "For me, coming out was sort of self-defense because I was bullied by other students. Some recognized my sexual orientation and tried to use it to threaten me. After I came out, they just stopped," he said.
