SEOUL, Oct. 4 (Korea Bizwire) – On October 3, the streets of Haebangchon in Seoul’s Yongsan district came alive with color and celebration as the Seoul Drag Parade 2024 made its long-awaited return after a five-year break due to the COVID-19 pandemic. “We wanted to bring drag out of the nightclubs and bars and into the [...]
DAEGU, Sept. 20 (Korea Bizwire) – With just a week to go before the Daegu Queer Culture Festival, tensions are escalating as both organizers and opponents have turned to the courts, filing injunctions that underscore the deeply divisive nature of LGBTQ+ rights in this conservative city. On September 19, the festival’s organizing committee submitted an emergency [...]
SEOUL, Jul. 24 (Korea Bizwire) – For Samsik (a pseudonym), a 34-year-old man who has been in a same-sex relationship for 11 years, the recent Supreme Court decision recognizing health insurance dependency status for same-sex couples brought tears of joy and a sense of long-awaited acknowledgment. “Even after loving someone for so long, it was always [...]
SEOUL, July 1 (Korea Bizwire) — Tens of thousands of people gathered in downtown Seoul on Saturday to enjoy an annual major LGBTQ festival amid opposition from some protesters, its organizer said. The Seoul Queer Culture Festival (SQCF) took place in Seoul’s Euljiro 2-ga area, where local sexual minorities and citizens took part in a [...]
SEOUL, June 27 (Korea Bizwire) — The state human rights watchdog has ruled that universities refusing to allow advertisements on campus for small LGBTQ groups is an act of discrimination. A college student from Gyeonggi Province submitted a petition to the National Human Rights Commission of Korea (NHRCK) in April last year after their university [...]
DAEGU, June 15 (Korea Bizwire) — A court has rejected an injunction request by merchant and church groups to ban an annual LGBTQ festival in Daegu, clearing the way for the event to take place in the heart of the southeastern city this weekend, judicial officials said Thursday. The Daegu District Court dismissed the injunction [...]
SEOUL, May 5 (Korea Bizwire) — The Seoul Metropolitan Government on Thursday denied the use of Seoul Plaza for the annual festival of the LGBTQ community. The decision came after the citizen committee on Seoul Plaza operations reviewed two requests submitted for the use of the plaza from June 30 to July 1, the city [...]
SEOUL, June 15 (Korea Bizwire) — The LGBTQ community in South Korea has been conditionally allowed to resume an annual festival in the heart of Seoul next month after a two-year hiatus caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the city government said Wednesday. Organizers of the Seoul Queer Culture Festival have been permitted to hold the [...]
SEOUL, June 7 (Korea Bizwire) — U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman met members of the LGBTQ community in Seoul on Tuesday and voiced support for their efforts to promote rights of sexual minorities, according to the U.S. embassy here. Sherman held the meeting with representatives of the LGBTQ community at the official residence [...]
SEOUL, Aug. 26 (Korea Bizwire) – The Seoul city government said Thursday it has rejected an application from a LGBTQ festival organizer to establish a non-profit foundation, citing concerns of social conflict if the request were to be approved. The city government sent a letter Wednesday to the Seoul Queer Culture Festival (SQCF) Organizing Committee [...]