‘What If My Fay Found Out?’: Korea’s Coronavis Trackg Unnerv Gay Communy - WSJ

Contents:

• IN THE MP WORLD OF K-POP, ’S HARD FOR STARS TO BE GAY
• NORTH KOREA’S ‘ONLY OPENLY GAY FECTOR’ FDS LOVE
• GAY SOUTH KOREA: 'SHE SAID I DON'T NEED A SON LIKE YOU'
• ‘WHAT IF MY FAY FOUND OUT?’: KOREA’S CORONAVIS TRACKG UNNERV GAY COMMUNY
• AFTER SEX VIO, SOUTH KOREA ACCED OF TARGETG GAY SOLDIERS

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.

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

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. 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. After Hong me out publicly as gay 2000, he was fired om his hostg job and lost other work – and thor Kwon believ that harsh rponse has disuraged others om followg su.

GAY SOUTH KOREA: 'SHE SAID I DON'T NEED A SON LIKE YOU'

Holland thks thgs are changg: more artists appear to be ditg that they are alli of the gay muny.

In the absence of nfirmatn, mentators have ed small, clive clu to speculate on their stance, for example, the time the band’s lear RM tweeted Macklemore’s song “Same Love, ” which promot equal rights for gay people. But ultimately, experts believe a time when gay stars are accepted mastream K-pop uld still be some way off.

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. Medil tts "There is no ncept of homosexualy North Korea, " he says.

‘WHAT IF MY FAY FOUND OUT?’: KOREA’S CORONAVIS TRACKG UNNERV GAY COMMUNY

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.

AFTER SEX VIO, SOUTH KOREA ACCED OF TARGETG GAY SOLDIERS

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. 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.

"The revelatn transformed Jang's life, and he beme a regular at Seoul's gay bars. "I heard that there are many gay bars there. Holland is not the first known LGBT K-pop idol, but you n say that this new generatn of K-pop, he's one of the first idols who admted that he's gay.