#lgtbq+ rights in south korea

[waitmyturtles]

At a bar in Euljiro, one of Seoul’s up-and-coming hip neighborhoods, two voices intertwined in a duet. One was high-pitched, the other an octave lower.

But there was only one singer, a 27-year-old named jiGook. The other voice was a recording made years ago, before he began his transition and hormone therapy deepened his voice.

“I don’t want to forget about my old self,” he told the 50 or so people at the performance, a fund-raiser for a group that supports young L.G.B.T.Q. Koreans. “I love myself before I started hormone therapy, and I love myself as who I am now.”

Like many other South Korean singers, jiGook, who considers himself gender fluid, transmale and nonbinary, wants to be a K-pop star. So do Prin and SEN, his bandmates in QI.X, a fledgling group that has released two singles.

What makes them unusual is that they are proudly out — in their music, their relationship with their fans and their social activism. They call themselves one of the first openly queer, transgender K-pop acts, and their mission has as much to do with changing South Korea’s still-conservative society as with making music.

In the group’s name — pronounced by spelling out the letters — Q stands for queer, I for idol and X for limitless possibilities. Park Ji-yeon, the K-pop producer who started QI.X, says it is “tearing down the heteronormative walls of society.”

Very few K-pop artists, or South Korean entertainers in general, have ever been open about being lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or queer. Though the country has become somewhat more accepting of sexual diversity, homophobia is still prevalent, and there are no legal protections against discrimination.

For entertainers, coming out is seen as a potential career killer, said Cha Woo-jin, a music critic in Seoul. That applies even to K-pop, despite its young, increasingly international fan base and its occasional flirtation with androgyny and same-sex attraction.

“K-pop fans seem to accept the queer community and imagery so long as their favorite stars don’t come out explicitly,” Mr. Cha said.

That’s not a compromise that QI.X is willing to make.

The bandmates’ social media accounts, which promote their causes along with their music, are up front about who they are. So are their singles, “Lights Up” (“The hidden colors in you / I see all the colors in you”) and “Walk & Shine,” which Mx. Park says “celebrates the lives and joy of minorities.”

“Someday, we want to be on everyone’s streaming playlist,” said Prin, 22.

As a producer, Mx. Park, 37, who identifies as queer and nonbinary, has worked on hits for well-known K-pop acts like GOT7 and Monsta X. But she wanted to make music that spoke directly to people like her, with “an artist who could encapsulate our lives, love, friendships and farewells.”

She met some of the QI.X members through a K-pop music class she started in 2019, designed with queer performers in mind. (In other classes, she said, “It was assumed that female participants only wanted to learn girl-group songs and male participants only boy-group songs.”)

SEN, 23, said that when Mx. Park asked her to join QI.X, “it was as if a genie in a bottle had come to me.”

SEN had been a dancer and a choreographer for several K-pop management agencies, including BTS’s agency, Big Hit Entertainment, now known as HYBE. The people she worked with knew she was queer, and they were welcoming.

But whenever she auditioned to join an idol group, she said, she “never fit the bill for what they wanted.” People would say she was too short or boyish, or comment about her cropped hair.

That’s not an issue for QI.X, which doesn’t aspire to the immaculately styled look of the typical K-pop act (and, in any case, couldn’t afford the ensemble of stylists those groups have). Individuality, they say, is part of the point.

QI.X often performs at fund-raisers, for L.G.B.T.Q. and other causes, and sees its music as inseparable from its activism. Maek, for instance, an original member who sang on both singles but is on hiatus from the group, works for the Seoul Disabled People’s Rights Film Festival and volunteers for a transgender rights organization.

With no support from a management agency, Mx. Park and the group do everything themselves. They handle their own bookings and manage their social media presence, recording videos themselves to post on TikTok and Instagram.

Many of the videos are shot at LesVos, an L.G.B.T.Q. bar in Seoul that often serves as QI.X’s studio and rehearsal hall. Myoung-woo YoonKim, 68, who has run LesVos since the late 1990s, grew up at a time when lesbians were practically invisible in South Korea. “I would often think, ‘Am I the only woman who loves women?’” they said.

The QI.X members adore Mx. YoonKim, whom they call hyung, a Korean word for older brother. During a recent video session at LesVos, after dozens of increasingly comical lip-syncing takes of “Walk & Shine,” Mx. YoonKim started to join in. Before long, everyone was bent over with laughter.

To a casual observer of K-pop, it might seem surprising that so few of its artists are out. As Mr. Cha, the music critic, notes, L.G.B.T.Q. imagery has been known to surface in K-pop videos and in ads featuring its stars.

Some critics see this phenomenon as “queerbaiting,” a cynical attempt to attract nonconformist fans — or to deploy gender-bending imagery because it’s seen as trendy — without actually identifying with them. To Mr. Cha, it suggests that K-pop has a substantial queer fan base, and that some artists might simply be expressing their identities to the extent they can.

Mr. Cha thinks the taboo against entertainers’ coming out reflects a general attitude toward pop culture in South Korea: “We pay for you, therefore don’t make us uncomfortable.” (Similar attitudes seem to prevail in Japan, where one pop idol recently made news by telling fans he was gay.)

QI.X’s fans, who call themselves QTZ (a play on “cuties”), love the group for charging over that boundary. Many are overseas and follow the group online, leaving enthusiastic messages. “I’m so happy I can finally have an artist in the K-pop industry that I can relate to on a gender level, on a queer level,” one said in a video message to the group. “I’m so excited for you!”

The band also gets hateful messages, which its members do their best to ignore. Prin, 22, is optimistic that attitudes in South Korea are changing. (Joining QI.X was Prin’s way of coming out as gender queer, but friends were much more surprised by the news that Prin was in an idol group.)

The biggest show of QI.X’s career, so far, was in July at a Pride event, the Seoul Queer Culture Festival. In recent years, it had been held at Seoul Plaza, a major public square. But this year, the city denied organizers permission to hold it there, letting a Christian group use the space for a youth concert instead.

Activists saw that as discrimination, though the city denied it. Conservative Christians are a powerful force in South Korean politics, having lobbied successfully for years to block a bill that would prevent discrimination against gay, lesbian and transgender people. Organizers held the festival in Euljiro.

For its set, QI.X had about 20 backup performers, some of whom were their friends (Mx. YoonKim was one of them). They had rehearsed only once together, on the festival stage that morning, because they hadn’t had the money to rent a big studio.

Christian protesters were picketing the festival, some with signs that read “Homosexuality not human rights but SIN.” But fans were there, too. As QI.X sang “Lights Up” and “Walk & Shine,” hundreds crowded in front of the stage, many wearing headbands that were purple, the group’s color. There were Pride flags, and signs that read “We only see you QI.X.”

Hours later, the excitement still hadn’t faded for QI.X. “I felt alive for the first time in a while,” SEN said.

Text by Jin Yu Young, photos by Chang W. Lee (if you have a NY Times subscription or a free trial, the videos and photos of this piece are wonderful!)

[stormblessed95]

Do u know examples of when bts explicitly expressses support for the lgtbq community?

Yes. Because I talked about those as a few examples during my Rainbow moments posts. I have shared where RM and Suga both have explicitly stated their support in the past, their company as well. I personally think all the little moments and clear moments of "we accept you" are also enough. They also just released the My Universe documentary on their official site where the song is stated to be for everyone and how everyone deserves love, no matter your gender or your sexuality. And that is BIG, these little comments and that video for South Korea. You can also sit down and Google for examples, because that's where I find all mine. I have talked about this before and I've said everything I want to say. You are free to go through my masterlist and my archive and Google to find all these examples 💜

I know some people feel like that is not enough, but I don't think they realize how BIG all these things are in Korea. It's enough for me. It's enough for plenty of us in the community. If it isn't enough for you or anyone else, well that is something for you to come to terms with, decide how you feel about it and how that impacts how you feel about them, if at all. There is no right answer to that, but I can't decide that for you and it's also not my job to once a month talk about how yes, it is clear to me and to many others they support the community and here is why.... that gets tiring. Lol

Hope you can find what you are looking for, either through my old posts or online 😊 have a good day!

[rainclash-blog]

do you think people will ever get the fact that without african-american and black music most of the modern pop culture in the U.S, Europe, Japan, and South Korea wouldn’t be what it is today?

Like anytime you hear a guitar riff in One-Punch Man or Bleach, its influenced from Western rock, yes, but that is from blues and blue grass.and I don’t give a shit about elvis, or van helen, or any other old rock guitarist, because they got their influence from black artists too. this includes the k-pop and j-pop scene too. like BTS is doing great, and im proud of them, but their beats come from R&B and rap.

Or Hollywood. Since almost any urban dystopia movie can be traced back to privileged individuals wanting to fantasize about experiencing oppression- most likely black and LGTBQ oppression- without the actual ramifications about it. (The Purge, or Ready Player One anyone?) Also the recent Marsha P. Johnson film whose director pretty much fucking stole the research from trans women of color instead of working with them.

Jesus, even Picasso ripped off African art for his work while discrediting it’s origins and paying no matter to its history.

Civil rights wouldn’t be the way they are without black people either. And im not even referencing MLK JR, Marsha P. Johnson, or Malcolm X.  For god’s sake, alabama almost elected a fuckin’ child molester, and black voters stopped that shit from happening. hell, they were pointing out police brutality way before it became a ‘hot topic’ for the left to discuss. Obama brought the country back from a horrible recession in just fuckin’ 8 years with white conservative Congress actively trying to stop him, yet that wasn’t enough for people. Not to mention black womans’ activism in welfare rights and demanding dignity toward working mothers and stay-at-home mothers, and now intersectionalist feminism. 

like not only is it high time that black minority groups get some damn recognition in this stupid country, they should be thanked by Western society for their contributions to it.

[yfdgarts]

YFDG Interview: Amelia Capaz

Q: For those who don't know you, who are you, where are you from & what is it that you do ?

A: My name is Amelia Capaz. I've been living in and out of New York City for the past few years, but I'm from dirty Jersey originally. I currently work as a social editor for VICELAND, but in my free time I like to draw, write, and make dumb internet content.

Q: When did you first get into art & writing?

A: I've been drawing for as long as I can remember. Before I could read and write, I would draw up these crazy, imaginative pictures and staple them together in order to make little booklets. I'd have my mom jot down the plot as I narrated each page. Later, in elementary school I was really into anime and manga, and so my stories kind of evolved in that direction (this influenced me to study Japanese language, which I minored in--and am still not very good at).  As I got older, I definitely lost touch with my love of storytelling and got more interested in fashion illustration. I worked super hard to get into a school for fashion design, and realized after years and years of mental, emotional, and physical investment that it wasn't really my thing. I did, however, reconnect with my real interests by means of fashion-art. I've kind of laid the "fashion" aspect of it to rest though and come full circle back to my love of storytelling. My interests are always changing and I can't really stick to one thing.

Q: Who are some people (Dead or living) that inspire you or mean something to you?

A: Is it too cliche to say that my biggest inspiration is my mom? Because she's without a doubt my idol. She's as tough as nails, but still the warmest person I know, and I don't know where I'd be without her guidance.

Q: What is your favorite color?

A: Millennial pink is definitely my favorite color, but I like yellow, too.

Q: What are your favorite foods?

A: I love so many foods...if we're talking comfort food, then I need my Cuban bakery essentials (croquetas, namely). I also have a guilty-pleasure passion for traditional American shitfood, like pizza, chicken wings, anything bad for me, really. Fast food is my one true vice.

Q: What is your favorite movie?

A: I have really bad taste in movies, if you couldn't have guessed. I don't have just one favorite, but I've seen Billy Madison about 750 times.

Q: If you knew you only had a week left before the life as we know it ceased to exist what would you do?

A: Spend time with the people I love.

Q: If you could recommend a book to anyone, what book would you recommend & why?

A: The Red Tent by Anita Diamant. I was really moved by that book, for some reason. Really interesting to see the Old Testament dissected and retold from a woman's point of view.

Q: What do you like to do when you are not making art?

A: I love social media, and I definitely spend a lot more time than I should on it, but when I'm not making art or tweeting myself into a k-hole, I like listening to music, going out and dancing with friends. Video games are fun, too, but I don't play them as much as I'd like to.

Q: Where do you want to go that you have never been to yet & why?

A: I haven't gone many places, so the thought of travel really fascinates me. I used to go back and forth to Miami every summer to visit family, but I haven't gotten to explore this side of the globe much further than that. Right now, Cuba's at the top of my list. With all the change happening between our two nations, I think it's important to get in touch with my roots, especially since I've never experienced the "homeland" firsthand. I used to always dream of going to Tokyo, but just two years ago, I got to spend a month over there--it was the most awesome experience. I want to go back ASAP. I'd really like to pass through South Korea the next time I visit Asia, too.

Q: What advice would you give to aspiring creatives?

A: Be diligent. Be inclusive. Take criticism, but don't let criticism obstruct your vision.

Q: What can we expect from you in the future?

A: I want to be more actively involved in philanthropic work, helping people who need it, and using my platforms and connections to promote the work of people in more marginalized communities, whether that be women, LGTBQ folk, or people of color. I don't have a very big following, but I think if you have any voice at all on one of these social networks, you should use it for the sake of good, and for the sake of uplifting others you stand in solidarity with--especially during these trying times under the Trump administration. I think this generation is really interested in making a difference, and that's really special--the big question is "how?" I, myself, would like to learn more about effective ways to get involved. Not just online, but in person, too. I'd like to try a more journalistic approach to writing as well.

Keep up with Amelia Capaz via Social Media !

https://twitter.com/th0tcouture

https://www.instagram.com/th0tcouture/