Pride Month Scenes in South Korea
Photo by Ana Cruz on Unsplash
The first thought would be "quite a risky take". Yes it is, undoubtledly.
Changes are like that. It's natural for some to go on with it, and some to lag behind, but at the end, it's inevitable.
LGBTQIA+
L- Lesbian
G- Gay
B- Bisexual
T- Transgender
Q- Queer
I- Intersex
A- Asexual
+ - Rest of the spectrums
History:
The colors of the pride flag, that started resonating with strong voices from 1978, reached by the shore of South Korea in the millenium, 2000. Barely 500 people, strong enough to fight for their well deserved rights started a new hope for the minorities living under disbelieves, hatred and fear of being exposed.
The Seoul Queer Culture Festival(서울퀴어문화축제) came in live.
Since 2001, the festival included a film festival, Korea Queer Film Festival (KQFF).
2009, the 10th Edition welcomed a number of Korean NGOs, including Baram Sory, the Korean Gay Men’s Human Rights Group, the Korean Lesbian Foundation, the Lesbian Counseling Center in South Korea, Korean Womenlink, Outeen, Unninetwork and Project Butchway film studio. It also received official support from Google.
Adding up few more thousand every year, the 14th edition of the festival had approximately 10,000 attendees in the Hongdae area, where it was held. LGBTQ celebrities were rising and shining on the stage, encouraging people to embrace themselves.
The 15th edition having upto 15,000 attendees however was almost at the verge of being cancelled.
It still garnered a lot of attention worldwide when it was banned in 2015.
Thanks to that, it's been going strong since 2016-19.
In 2019, with the 20th year of pride festival, a record number of 70,000 people attended the event with thousands of foreigners coming in to show their support and solidarity.
Attendees' Opinions at the event:
While I was watching some videos on the pride festival there, there were some comments by people supporting the LGBTQ+ movements caught my attention and i believe it should get to reach to people all around the world.
There was a father, proudly admitting to his son being gay and urging other parents to accept and embrace their children so that those children don't grow up to be disgusted or doubt themselves for whoever they are.
There was a guy, when was asked about his reasoning on the backlashes the event gets, he stated "What arises these backlashes are the unfamiliar-ness misinterpreted as hatred."
A Positive Future:
The change is inevitable and it shows. It can be a slow process, but I believe that there will come a time when one's sexuality won't be a serious conversation, everyone will love themselves and respect others for who they are. Seeing hundreds of parents showing up at the festival and taking the pride to influence others to give it a thought just as a fellow human, the youth taking the pride to tell the world who they are, that is script we all are taking part in writing the future.
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