Well, this is something that I've been meaning to do for a while (try about 4 months now). But a few months ago I experienced Pride in South Korea. Now for those of you who do not know, Pride is a celebration of being a part of the LGBT community and still one of the best ways to get information out on issues in the LGBT community, especially in countries where it is hard to find anyone that you can be sure is LGBT.
I do not know much about the laws here concerning LGBT rights, but I do know that extremely few people are fully if at all out here. I do not plan to discuss those, just what I saw at Pride.
When people think of Pride in the Western world they often think of large parties, a parade expanding blocks and lasting for hours, and lots of alcohol, sex, and drugs, with a few gay issues thrown in to make it seem like it is more than a giant party, which it can be, but usually is not for most.
South Korean Pride is completely different.
There was also a great deal of political booths to promote health and awareness and it was clear that is was a big deal to them to get their word out, however is a huge problem in how the gay community wants to get their message out in Korea. No one wants to be seen. The first thing I noticed at Pride was the amount of South Koreans there, which is great considering how often they hide their sexuality, and that the majority were wearing these red-ribbons. I know most people are thinking that it is for AIDs awareness, and trust me I was too, until I realized that these red-ribbons were to keep people from taking photos of them. As it turned out I had to register my camera in order to even take picutres and was given this really annoyingly huge cardboard sign so everyone knew I had a camera. I also had to agree not to post, or at least blur out any photos with people wearing a red-ribbon. This is because while they wanted to be out and proud and so many booths talked about making change, no one wanted to be seen and risk being outed to their family, friends and job. To make matters worse, when the parade started, we didn't go very far, which was fine, but as soon as we left the main Pride area a few of the people I saw wearing the red ribbons were hiding their faces. That alone made the whole expirience rather pointless to me. After all, change doesn't happen without showing yourself.
Now for those who are expecting a lot of alcohol in Pride, there wasn't really. There was a convience store nearby that sold alcohol and one outside vendor selling not really good beer. So, first of all this is not a drinking event. Now, drugs are apparently ridiculously hard to find in Korea anyway (at least I haven't heard of it, so we drink a lot) so clearly that is not going to be there. Which is nice, if you are like me and not a too big of a fan of over drinking and such, but I was in the mood for Jello shots. So there was a culture shock, very little alcohol. But we manage, we deal, convience stores that sell whole bottles of soju are there for a reason. :-)
Now, do not misunderstand me, I love South Korea and the very few gay people I met at Pride were wonderful. However, people are hiding and while there were chants during the parade about change and not having to hide anymore, change is not going to happen if you do keep hiding, especially at your biggest event of the year.
So this is my plea to you gay people of South Korea. Stop hiding please, it is time to be proud of who you are. As an ex-pat I have no power to make change here, I am "only a foreigner who cannot understand Korean culture." And I am sure many will ignore me because of that and maybe I got the wrong impression, but based on what I saw please stop hiding. Although I know change won't happen over night.
Also, to those of us in the western world who are young and used to more gay rights and not really having to hide on the same level: we really need to learn to appreciate what we have more.
And if I am wrong, please tell me that too.
Now to end these things I'm going to post one or two picutes that I can on here, because someone needs to.
I do not know much about the laws here concerning LGBT rights, but I do know that extremely few people are fully if at all out here. I do not plan to discuss those, just what I saw at Pride.
When people think of Pride in the Western world they often think of large parties, a parade expanding blocks and lasting for hours, and lots of alcohol, sex, and drugs, with a few gay issues thrown in to make it seem like it is more than a giant party, which it can be, but usually is not for most.
South Korean Pride is completely different.
There was also a great deal of political booths to promote health and awareness and it was clear that is was a big deal to them to get their word out, however is a huge problem in how the gay community wants to get their message out in Korea. No one wants to be seen. The first thing I noticed at Pride was the amount of South Koreans there, which is great considering how often they hide their sexuality, and that the majority were wearing these red-ribbons. I know most people are thinking that it is for AIDs awareness, and trust me I was too, until I realized that these red-ribbons were to keep people from taking photos of them. As it turned out I had to register my camera in order to even take picutres and was given this really annoyingly huge cardboard sign so everyone knew I had a camera. I also had to agree not to post, or at least blur out any photos with people wearing a red-ribbon. This is because while they wanted to be out and proud and so many booths talked about making change, no one wanted to be seen and risk being outed to their family, friends and job. To make matters worse, when the parade started, we didn't go very far, which was fine, but as soon as we left the main Pride area a few of the people I saw wearing the red ribbons were hiding their faces. That alone made the whole expirience rather pointless to me. After all, change doesn't happen without showing yourself.
Now for those who are expecting a lot of alcohol in Pride, there wasn't really. There was a convience store nearby that sold alcohol and one outside vendor selling not really good beer. So, first of all this is not a drinking event. Now, drugs are apparently ridiculously hard to find in Korea anyway (at least I haven't heard of it, so we drink a lot) so clearly that is not going to be there. Which is nice, if you are like me and not a too big of a fan of over drinking and such, but I was in the mood for Jello shots. So there was a culture shock, very little alcohol. But we manage, we deal, convience stores that sell whole bottles of soju are there for a reason. :-)
Now, do not misunderstand me, I love South Korea and the very few gay people I met at Pride were wonderful. However, people are hiding and while there were chants during the parade about change and not having to hide anymore, change is not going to happen if you do keep hiding, especially at your biggest event of the year.
So this is my plea to you gay people of South Korea. Stop hiding please, it is time to be proud of who you are. As an ex-pat I have no power to make change here, I am "only a foreigner who cannot understand Korean culture." And I am sure many will ignore me because of that and maybe I got the wrong impression, but based on what I saw please stop hiding. Although I know change won't happen over night.
Also, to those of us in the western world who are young and used to more gay rights and not really having to hide on the same level: we really need to learn to appreciate what we have more.
And if I am wrong, please tell me that too.
Now to end these things I'm going to post one or two picutes that I can on here, because someone needs to.
Actually, I'll only post one, I don't want to risk posting one of my pictures and missing someone I should block out.
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1 comment:
Great post. Always intresting to hear how things differ around the world.
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