This year’s edition of the Seoul Pride has seen record numbers of participants, with more than 100,000 people attending (120,000 according to organizers – the police did not release official data on attendance). The march celebrated the nineteenth edition of the Seoul Queer Culture Festival. This year it was necessary to include the name of the city, since similar events had been organized in Daegu, Busan, Jeju, Jeonju and Incheon. The name given to the event in the South Korean capital, “Queround,” is meant to highlight the fact that queer people are “all around us.”
“This hate culture, which is so widespread in Korea, targets not only queer people, but also women, refugees and disabled people – says Kang Myeong-jin, who heads the team organizing the march – There are people who want to eliminate these groups of people who are oppressed by our society. But we can’t be eliminated. We are here and we need to be visible, and this is the function the Festival has.”
“Religion is reduced to violence”
On the other side of the street were religious groups that opposed the Pride, who tried to prevent the parade, headed by a club of motorcyclists called Rainbow Riders, from starting. Around 500 police officers kept the two groups separate and ensured safety for the Festival’s participants.
“Religion should be something personal, it should not be used to judge people – says Kang – These people are just using religion as a means to exert violence over others. What we are seeing here is not a dialogue of peers, but violent attacks on one side, with the other side defending itself. In this country society may seem unresponsive because these groups are always louder than us, but things are evolving steadily and we have more and more people who demand change.”
Alessandro Garzi
translation by Alex
©2018 Il Grande Colibrì
foto: Seoul Queer Culture Festival / Facebook
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