LGBT Act.org

Emergency Coalition of South Korean LGBT Rights Groups against Homophobia and the Distorted Anti-Discrimination Bill
E-mail: lgbtaction@gmail.com
Homepage: http://lgbtact.org

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* Although the essay below is a personal opinion, it represents the sentiments of LGBT individuals/groups in South Korea who are fighting right now against the virulent homophobia of conservative Protestants and the government's consequent distortion and reduction of what was to be an unprecedented and comprehensive Anti-Discrimination Bill through the deletion of 7 categories of personal attributes open to discrimination including "sexual orientation" from the bill. Please show your support by circulating the attached copy of the essay (MS Word file). Thank you!


[Opinion] This struggle will be South Korea's Stonewall Uprising

November 10, 2007

Do you know about the historic event that took place in the Stonewall Inn, a rundown bar in New York, on June 27, 1969?

As usual, without any reason, police officers raided the bar and hauled the clients away, even beating them. It wasn't as if any of these clients had committed crime--only gay men, lesbians, and transgenders chatting over a drink or two. However, because the social climate labeled homosexuals and transgenders as "shameful" and "sinful," it was possible for the police to force these people into patrol cars at will. Once at the police station, they would be made to write statements and have their names published in the newspaper the next day.

What happened on that day at the Stonewall Inn has since then acquired the name and status of an "uprising" because, instead of resigning and surrendering themselves to such routine discrimination, oppression, and violence, instead of remaining silent about what was unfair and unjust, the clients actually resisted and spoke out. They yelled, "Gay power!"

Indeed, people who were at the Stonewall Inn that day resisted against the police by hurling hairpins, coins, handbags, high heels, and empty bottles. Intimidated, the police soon dispatched a riot-control tactical patrol force, which led to a 4-day struggle that subsequently spread nationwide. Moreover, the Stonewall Uprising has sparked off and become a monument to LGBT rights movements worldwide.

The statements we publish online today are the hairpins people slung at the executors of oppression 38 years ago. The flyers we hand out on the street now are the coins they threw at the perpetrators of violence back then. The questions we have--Do we have to live like this just because we are gay, bisexual, or transgender? Why are so many people angry with me?--are the handbags Stonewall Inn clients flung at the forces of discrimination decades ago. The moments we hold meetings, whether on the Internet or at coffee shops, are the high heels that these people hurled at the instigators of hate and prejudice back then. Indeed, everywhere we go, everywhere we gather, everywhere we struggle--that's the Stonewall Inn.

Never in Korean history have we witnessed so much indignation and so much righteous anger on the part of sexual minorities converge with such force. Never have so many LGBT people taken action, entirely voluntarily and without prompting. Never have we seen so many individuals and organizations spontaneously come together to form a coalition. What does all this mean? Might we perhaps be at the threshold of what the posterity will record as a "major turning point," a "splendid struggle," and an "invaluable accomplishment"?

In the first gay parade ever to be held in France, in 1977, the participants cried out, "We're not ashamed! We're only afraid!"

At the emergency meeting of LGBT rights groups held on October 31, at the launching of LGBT Act.org on November 5, the piercing gazes and tense postures of the people who had filled the auditorium clearly said one thing: we were proud of ourselves and one another, we all felt that we had no reason whatsoever to be ashamed or neglected, we had every claim to our rights as proud human beings, citizens, and members of this world, and we were afraid of the abuse of political power and procedures in the name of religion and therefore willing and ready to fight back.

I earnestly hope that our action, our praxis, our struggle now will go down in history as an event with the same significance as the Stonewall Uprising of 1969. I have a strong suspicion that things will turn out that way.

LGBT Act.org! Let's fight to the end for our dignity, freedom, and happiness!

Even though fighting is supposed to be bad, these days, I just love to hear the words "Let's fight!" :)

Han Chae-yun
Representative
Korean Sexual Minority Culture and Rights Center (KSCRC)
Phone: 0505-896-8080; Fax: 0505-893-8080; E-mail: kscrc@kscrc.org
Address: 5/F Donggeum Building, 197-1 Myo-dong, Jongro-gu, Seoul, Korea 110-370
Homepage: http://kscrc.org/en/intro.shtml