“This panel, we’re jt gog to show our gay,” Lai Franc proclaimed to the packed crowd at KCon’s panel on LGBT fandom Korean pop mic. The K-Pop fans attendance roared wh approval.
Contents:
IN THE MP WORLD OF K-POP, ’S HARD FOR STARS TO BE GAY
* are kpop fans gay *
What is like to be gay South Korea? Homophobia is still rife South Korea, where very few mastream mic stars have e out as gay.
There, homosexual sex is not banned, but is illegal the ary, where almost all men mt plete a stt of pulsory nscriptn. “It’s kd of sad, ” said Jungm Kwon, an amic who wrote a book lled “Straight Korean Female Fans and Their Gay Fantasi. “On the one hand looks like the dtry is very open md to shippg culture, ” she told CNN, referrg to the culture among fans of imagg relatnships between their favore stars – cludg gay relatnships.
Acrdg to Kwon, fans were spired by “yaoi” – a kd of Japane manga that featur gay relatnships between male upl – and began makg up stori about their favore stars. Even now, K-pop labels sometim cultivate idols’ homoerotic appeal the hop that mak them more popular fanfictn, where Kwon timat 80% of stori volve gay story l. South Korea’s rerd labels are happy to let fans fantasize about idols beg gay.