North Korea's only openly gay fector: ''s a weird life' | North Korea | The Guardian

Contents:

• NORTH KOREA’S ‘ONLY OPENLY GAY FECTOR’ FDS LOVE
• NORTH KOREA'S ONLY OPENLY GAY FECTOR: ''S A WEIRD LIFE'
• ‘I ULD NOT EVEN DREAM’: WHAT ’S LIKE TO BE GAY NORTH KOREA

NORTH KOREA’S ‘ONLY OPENLY GAY FECTOR’ FDS LOVE

Homosexualy⚢✖ Illegal (ath penalty as punishment)Gay Marriage⚭✖ UnregnizedCensorship✖ Other punishmentNon-bary genr regnn✖ Not legally regnizedDiscrimatn✖ No protectnsEmployment Discrimatn✖ No protectnsHog Discrimatn✖ No protectns. Unregnized Depictn media of affectn North Korea tend to be very rare, and no law agast gay marriage exists the legalArticle 193 outlaws the creatn, distributn or posssn of "nt" culture.

But, based on a North Korean propaganda film om the year 2000, male homosexualy may be agast the law the ary, cludg for prisoners of war. Image source, Oh HwanJang Yeong-j's remarkable story as North Korea's only openly gay fector was vered by the ternatnal media after he published his tobgraphy. Park Jeong-Won, a law profsor at Seoul's Kookm Universy, says that he is not aware of any explic North Korean law agast gay and lbian relatnships.

But he adds that the state's laws agast extramaral relatns and breachg social mor would probably be -opted to prosecutg any gay sexual act. "When I asked them about homosexualy, they didn't tch on quickly so I had to expla to every sgle person, " Kim, profsor of North Korean Studi at Ewha Women's Universy, says.

NORTH KOREA'S ONLY OPENLY GAY FECTOR: ''S A WEIRD LIFE'

He turned the page to disver an article about gay men g out, wh a scene om an Amerin film showg two men kissg source, Chosun-ilboImage ptn, Jang's risky fectn route ma headl the SouthFally dawned on Jang that he, too, was gay. By North Korean standards Jang Yeong-j had a normal start life: he joed the ary at 19, pleted 10 years of natnal service and married soon trapped his untry, which he has lled “one huge prison whout bars”, problems wh his marriage led him to fect to South was only when he crossed the borr and spent time a more open society did bee clear to him that he was homosexual, somethg he had never prevly had a name for.

”Speakg to the European Alliance for Human Rights North Korea, Jang explas that although he is ee of the DPRK regime, life as an openly gay fector remas a explas that men and women are often segregated for long perds of time North Korea. Photograph: ChaFotoPrs/ChaFotoPrs via Getty ImagWhat did you know about homosexualy growg up North Korea? After the publitn of his report, the Korean Central News Agency published an article that ntaed many homophobic slurs aimed at him.

‘I ULD NOT EVEN DREAM’: WHAT ’S LIKE TO BE GAY NORTH KOREA

Acrdg to lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr, and tersex (LGBTI) rights group Equalx, no legal mechanisms exist for LGBTI dividuals to protect agast discrimatn hog and employment. Equalx characterized legal protectns toward same-sex sexual activy, the right to change legal genr, and gay and lbian persons servg openly the ary as ambiguo. LGBT rights North Korea From Wikipedia, the ee encyclopedia Lbian, gay, bisexual, and transgenr (LGBT) people North Korea have no legal protectns.

Contrary to popular belief, homosexualy is not agast the law North Korea, and people om the LGBT muny are more than wele to travel here – fact, openly gay tour guis have equently led tours here whout issue. Whilst homosexualy is not illegal the untry, there is no gay scene to speak of, and you certaly will not meet openly gay Koreans the DPRK. The most that gay travelers n expect, terms of scty, is for your guis to take a ank tert your orientatn.

Discrimatn agast women is pervasive, as is discrimatn agast lbian, gay, bisexual, and transgenr (LGBT) people, and racial and ethnic mori. Some media scribed the nightclubs as gay clubs, settg off a firtorm of onle harassment and timidatn agast LGBT people.

Jang did not hear the word “homosexual” for the first 37 years of his life, sayg he had no ncept of what meant, somethg not unual his native North Korea. Readg a magaze a doctor’s surgery 1998, not long after he arrived South Korea, Jang saw an article about homosexualy.

Homosexualy and beg openly transgenr are not jure illegal North Korea, but the ernment do not regnize LGBT rights, therefore LGBT persons face legal challeng not experienced by non-LGBT persons. Crimal lawsConstutnal lawFay policyMedia ntrol and censorshipMilaryPolics and propagandaCultureReferencThe crimal do not exprsly prohib private, nonmercial, adult and voluntary acts of homosexualy. A facto ban on homosexualy or non-nformg genr exprsn may e om a vaguely word law that bans anythg emed by the ernment to be "agast the socialist liftyle.