Pride Weekend and Thoughts on Homosexuality in Korea

This past weekend was AMAZING! Pride was great, and I met some cool people at the parade as well as saw some friends I hadn't seen in a while. I went back in 2010, but this year was a LOT bigger. As in they will need to change the venue next year because it was too packed to see the stage.

Thanks Kelly for this awesome picture

Korean society is slowly but surely changing toward acceptance of sexual minorities in Korea. The younger generation in particular actually talks about gayness (even though some of it may be to mock their fellow students). I just get a little worried about the growing strength of the religious right in Korea (see this great entry by Gordsellar on how textbooks will be dropping aspects of evolution in schools). There is a very vocal extreme religious right in Korea that wants society to view homosexuality as dirty and a perversion. Isn't it great to pick and choose certain verses of Leviticus? How about this one? Leviticus 20:9 If anyone curses his father or mother, he must be put to death. Man, a lot of people would be executed if we followed the 'word of God'.

Other religious leaders just want to argue that there have never been gays in Korea. Ha. At least aspects of Korean media realizes this is ridiculous. There have been gays in a couple of historical Korean films (The King and The Clown and The Frozen Flower), and I hope most people take what random pastors spew on TV with a grain of salt.

That was kind of a tangent, when I really just wanted to say that pride was GREAT. A celebration of love and acceptance for who we are as individuals, regardless of what the greater society thinks. We'll see how big it is next year ^^