K-pop: Why 's hard for stars to be gay South Korea | CNN

Contents:

• IN THE MP WORLD OF K-POP, ’S HARD FOR STARS TO BE GAY
• 5 STYLISH KOREAN ACTORS AND THE CONTROVERSIAL GAY CHARACTERS THEY PLAYED ON K-DRAMAS
• HOMOSEXUALITY IN KOREA: KOREAN CELEBRI, GAY IDOLS AND MORE

IN THE MP WORLD OF K-POP, ’S HARD FOR STARS TO BE 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.

5 STYLISH KOREAN ACTORS AND THE CONTROVERSIAL GAY CHARACTERS THEY PLAYED ON K-DRAMAS

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.

HOMOSEXUALITY IN KOREA: KOREAN CELEBRI, GAY IDOLS AND MORE

But they don’t want gay idols be open about their sexualy. But when me time to but, the label was agast him butg as a gay idol. “It’s a shame that’s the lim they n go when to showg homosexual teractn – n only be portrayed as funny.