In its 20 years after business school, his ambition left to become an artist and performer to follow heezy Yang has been known to make an array out-of-the-art of the Seoul District Itaewon as Homo Hill, a door for a long time considered to LGBTQ people in South Korea. he found a place where he can connect with others without fear of judgment or discrimination interact while for ways to express their sexuality through art. The area wearing a rugged hill near a US military base where, after dark, luminous characters of club names like Queen and Soho threw the streets of colored light. Today these lights are out say, the bars and clubs are closed and the hum usually quiet streets are atypical for a crown cluster with more than 130 cases shine unwanted attention to spark an increase in homophobia neighborhood activists. Now, the South Korean government is trying to track someone down the factories visited district, sparking fears that efficient, aggressive system of the country contact tracing, could lead to being banned for people and endangers the neighborhood was like discrete area where LGBTQ person can be yourself. Now a well-known drag performer and visual artist, Yang, 29, said that to find the area of a kind of openness is that it is impossible elsewhere in South Korea. “You can not squeeze in other areas such as free as you can be on Homo Hill, “says Yang TIME. “As the waiting hands or kiss, you can not do that anywhere else.” The news of the increasing number of infections has weighed on him. “I worry about friends and acquaintances, because not everyone has a family to support,” he says. Advertising is a strong start for an area that a country for LGBTQ people in South Korea, the bass usually one of the industrialized countries for LGBTQ acceptance is an oasis of peace, and where many choose to keep their sexual orientation to prevent privately discrimination in the workplace detain or their families. South Korean media then began a 29-year-old man for the crown in the area of many plants on May 2, the authorities have gathered the clubs participated in a list of more than 5,500 people participated, focused health authorities later profit announced for the neighborhood there. As of Thursday, still they had not managed to get about 2,500 of them in touch. Stay up to date on the growing threat to global health, by signing up for our daily newsletter crown. The timing of this new COVID-19 cases was particularly bad. South Korea being the guidelines for social distancing the May 6 officially relaxed and seemed to have been given control of an outbreak of Corona that in late February, was the largest outside of China. The country of 52 million won for its widespread testing system and search for contacts acclaim abroad. By the end of April the authorities had brought the number of new cases per day in single digits, have enacted without a full block. The celebration was short-lived. The number of new cases, two a day or three dozen Earlier this week, is still far below the hundreds of new infections Korean daily reported in late February and early March, but the new cluster come through at a time many considered caused consternation, the country was back to normal. Escalation of tension, all the clubs in Itaewon sponsors were asked to provide your name and contact information available, although authorities said some details incorrectly or incompletely then tested. each echo uncertainty in tracing early escalation of the South Korean outbreak, as members of a religious group mysterious refusal were accused of spreading be tested and then accepted the virus before church leaders, a list of members. Because of concerns about the new dynamics of the spread of the virus in South Korea, the government has delayed the opening of the new school year. Itaewon revelers even mocking objects have become. A Ilbo newspaper Kukmin, critics gathered for objects, the language used is gay as promiscuous and prone to sexual risk behavior. Activists argue that the newspaper useless highlighted that the original investigation subject Incite blast had visited a gay club in an attempt to homophobia. The office of Amnesty International South Korea condemned the article in a statement on Tuesday, saying for example Reporting “arouses feeling stigma and anti-LGBT.” The situation leaves to beat the government of South Korea is a delicate balance. The success of the country in the fight against the crown of the citizens’ needs, assign a certain amount of privacy by the government to track their movements through their cell phone data, then place these movements start with or without consent. The very government releases detailed information on the movements of each case known coronaviruses. The authorities are now trying to find a way to continue this monitoring, while not accidentally make information on it to reveal, neighbors and colleagues to learn an infected person, which could lead a gay bar visited. “Sexual orientation is not important for virus prevention measures, and such disclosure would violate the privacy rights. If information such as revealing why someone should come forward and admit that they have visited?” , said Kim Woo-joo, a professor in the Department of Infectious diseases at Korea University Guro Hospital in Seoul. Homosexuality is not illegal in South Korea, but openly gay public figures are rare. , Chun-Seok On Tuesday, Hong an actor personality and television known as the first celebrity openly gay South Korea is credited to the public on the worsening situation weighed post a photo of Itaewon on Instagram and conjured up all the time in the area is spent on take the test in recent times. “Now is the time to be brave,” Hong wrote. “I, better than anyone else who cares to know journey, but now the most important thing is the health and safety of our families and society.” Hong is an example of how LGBTQ South Koreans gather. Last Tuesday to support aid for people in need, a coalition of civic groups in South Korea, announced the introduction of a hotline for those who want to test anonymously. “Let’s make a new community in the midst of a crisis and support each other,” the group said in a statement. LGBTQ South Koreans who are not out to colleagues and family members looked forward to their suddenly relatively small and discrete communities national control Slumdog Millionaire. Nightclub with names like the trunk, H.I.M and Pink Elephant, which previously were only a few known, is national news. “These are the most famous clubs in Korea,” said Kim, a 30 year old gay resident of Seoul, requested that only his name be used because it was not his family or employer. Kim feels that the community has grown strong enough to get through the crisis. “I do not worry near these bars. And even if they would do next, would open other bars and clubs.” Hopefully for the research program of the government contacts and the Itaewon outbreak will be a turning point for Korean LGBTQ . “The framework for the media reporting on the LGBTQ community showman he was,” he says. “Now it is the time to act to defend them from hate.” Despite the current tensions in recent years in South Korea LGBTQ community he has taken steps out of the shadows Itaewon. Compared to the beginning of his career, Yang, the artist and drag performer who is more opportunity to show his work in new places, and collaboration with non-LGBTQ artists. “Things are definitely better than it was five or ten years. Now I can only open relatively more people, most of the people are open and have no prejudices,” he says. He believes that the game in progress is a response to growing LGBTQ persons profile. “Now we are vocal and visible, our status is now higher, and we talked about it,” Yang also concerns that caused the lack of confidence from the current pandemic, these gains are now at risk, he said: “I can” please do not want to do all that we have achieved go away. Send tips, leads and stories from the front to [email protected]. copyright Image of SeongJoon Cho Bloomberg / Getty Images
As South Korea nightclub blast I Shining an unwelcome spotlight on the LGBTQ community
