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LGBTQ REPRESENTATION OF SOUTH KOREA

South Korea, as we know it,seems like a highly advanced and developed country boasting the highest level of education in the OECD ( Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development ) and it’s citizens seem to be natural workaholics but the nation has no problem in leaving some issues like LGBTQ rights on the back burner due to popular misinformation. South Korea does not have a strong and visible lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender social movement in the public, despite active issue advocacy organizations, political representation from the Democratic Labour Party, and popular television shows that portray LGBTQ characters and themes. The LGBT movement has had a difficult time growing in South Korea because, as some have argued South Korea has long been ignorant about homosexuality and awareness of ‘gay’ had not been discovered until the early 1990s. Gay rights is one of these matters. Gay marriage and same sex unions are not recognized in Korea and though being gay in Korea is legal, it is highly stigmatized. Much of this is rooted in misinformation. Homosexuality was and often still is depicted as a mental illness within Korean culture, and numerous STDs, such as HIV/AIDS, are blamed on the LGBTQ community in Korea. In recent years, gay male characters have been featured in South Korean television and cinema—and even in a commercial or two. Movies like The King and The Clown and A Frozen Flower and the television shows Coffee Prince and Life is Beautiful have proven popularity in audiences, even as the social reality has been slow to catch up. In 2009, the independent film “Just Friends”, directed by Kim Joh Kwang-soo, who is openly gay, made it past the film festival barrier and released this movie in theaters. But while some progress has been made in terms of mainstream representations of gay men in South Korea, there has not yet been a similar leap where mainstream representations of lesbians are concerned. Some prominent Korean gay celebrities and public figure are Holland( Go Tae-Seob), Choi Han Bit, Kwon Do-Woon, Hong Seok-cheon and Oh Tae-Yang.Formerly known as the Korea Queer Culture Festival now known as the Seoul Queer Culture Festival is the largest LGBT event in South Korea. It has since 2000, been an annual public event taking place in Seoul for about two weeks from the end of May to the beginning of June advocating for LGBT rights in Korea. The main motive of cultural festival is to encourage pride among Korean sexual minorities and to awareness and understanding of LGBT issues to the public. But yet still same sex marriage is not legal in South Korea and neither the LGBTQ community of South Korea is provided any protection against discrimination. Many South Korean LGBTQ couples fly to foreign countries to legally marry and get their marriage legalized,this concept Is known as factory wedding. LGBTQ adults have poorer health conditions compared to the general population in Korea. These sexual minorities group deals with society and their Family acceptance. These cause to them significantly higher prevalence of depressive symptoms, suicidal ideation and attempts. Lesbian and bisexual women have a higher risk of poor self rated health and smoking than the general women population. Higher prevalence of hazardous drinking was observed among lesbians, gay men, and bisexual women compared to the general population. These results suggest that interventions are needed to address the health disparities of Korean LGBTQ adults.