First of all, I read your book when I was an undergrad at Wesleyan and thought it was fantastic. It was inspiring to read as a queer aspiring writer. While I haven’t been writing so much lately, I still recommend the book to my friends.

As for life in Korea as a gay man, I hardly agree with the ‘Gay in Korea’s post. Visibility is extremely low, far lower than anywhere I’ve ever been in America. People are homophobic, but this is through ignorance, which, via lack of visibility, can be even more dangerous than violent homophobia. This is not my point. My point is that Korean mainstream society is not accepting or even acknowledging of gay culture or existence. Regarding Hong Seok-Cheon, he was forced to resign from his job when he came out and only recently has been back in media spotlight. I sat in on a queer-themed movie at the Jeonju International Film Festival in 2007, during which the (mostly Korean) crowd gasped and laughed when the story’s two main characters would show any affection (as I recall, the two shared a peck, no more, in terms of physical affection.) Last fall, within a week of each other, two recently outed celebrities (one model, one transsexual) committed suicide, largely thought because of mass criticism and hate mail received by members of the Korean public. So, maybe people don’t get killed in Korea, but they are pressured to kill themselves. Hardly better, I would say.

Lastly, compare the numbers and activities at a Pride rally or parade in Seoul to that in, say, Seattle, where I live now. Men marching in the Seoul parade wear masks to hide their identities, and hardly a few hundred people show up. Then, only at 2am in the hidden ‘Homo Hill’ in Itaewon, do the men take off the masks to drink and party. This is completely foreign to a pride festival in the States, where thousands upon thousands of people show up to show support.

I’m also curious about the words ‘Gay in Korea’ talked about that mean ‘gay’ in Korean. I am familiar with a few, the first being ‘iban,’ which, literally, means ‘second class.’ Then there is ‘homo’ and ‘gei,’ which are merely transliterations of English words. The word whose hanja, or Chinese characters, mean ‘homosexual,’ is ‘dongsaengae,’ and never once, after living in Korea for three years, did I hear this word used in the context of a conversation.

I wanted to submit my thoughts, because, to be honest, after living in several places around the world, I had never been so stifled as a gay man as I was in Korea.

All that being said, I love Korea. I am pursuing a Master’s in Korea Studies, and none of this is meant to be Korea bashing at all. I simply felt it necessary to put in my two cents regarding homosexuality in Korea.

And thanks for commenting!

JP: I’d forgotten about those.

The thing is, Korean men are very affectionate with each other. When I first went to Korea, I thought everyone there was gay. Affection between the sexes there is frowned upon, but not between friends and family of the same sex. So you often see friends holding hands as they walk down the street.

T: That’s amazing. Thanks for the info, and for your recent comments, which have been great. I’ll definitely check those out. I know there’s been other signs that the culture is warming to it. But I also know that Korea has changed more in the last 70 years than it has in the last 700, and that there are many who believe in the old ways, with a great deal of strength.