Queer Next Door

Question List

 

 

 

 

 

Answer key   (This is quoted from ‘Korean Sexual-Minority Culture & Rights Center.’)

 

1. The symbol of Homosexuality is the rainbow with all colors except indigo blue. Each color means life, cure, sun, nature, art and soul. It represents various aspects of queers’ societies. The gay symbol was once a pink inverted triangle. It stemmed from the Nazis during World WarⅡ. When they had made gay prisoners attach a pink inverted triangle to their clothing. These days, the rainbow is the gay symbol while the pink inverted triangle is used as the mark of the gay pride movement.

2. GLBT = Gay +Lesbian + Bisexual +Trans-gender

3. ’Ivan’ means a queer. While straight people are called ‘Il-banjuk’(normal), queers call themselves ‘Ivan’, using the Chinese character ‘Ï∂’ (difference)

4. ’Homo’ is different from ‘Gay’. ‘Gay’ is the positive term for homosexuals.

‘Homo’ is the derogatory term for homosexuals.

5. ’Homosexuality’ means that you have a feeling of love for someone of the same sex. Homosexual love’ means a love affair with someone of the same sex. There is a feeling of physical indulgence in homosexual love.

6. Both trans-gender and trans-sexual refer to a person whose sex is different from their gender. However, the difference between them is the transsexual operation. A ‘Trans-sexual’ has had the operation, and a ‘trans-gender’ has not. Strictly speaking, Ha Ri-soo is a trans-sexual. But most people do not know it because the media hasn’t correctly publicized this.

  Have you heard about “Ivan”? Or do you know what the difference is between trans-gender and transsexual? If you know the answers, you might be interested in homosexuality. However, most people do not know much about homosexuality. The following table and graph are the results of ‘Question Lists’. Respondents were passengers at ‘Express Bus Terminal’ station on August 8th.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 The results of the 7th question revealed that people think homosexuality is natural but they do not want to have any association with them. It means although people recognize  homosexuality, they tend to avoid being connected with queers. Moreover, in the their’response category, there are many opinions that homosexuality is just a material of a popular soap operas or movies. In other words, the public hears about homosexuality or queers through the media and thinks these themes are just way ti make issues. For example, a man in his twenties who was interviewed at the ‘express Bus Terminal’station said, “ have just heard about homosexuality in the media. Actually, there are no queers around me.”Homosexuality has been portrayed in the media, but this dosen't depict real lives. About his phenomenon, Mr.♠, a gay in SSU, said, “Although the media may make people misunderstand and get prejudiced against homosexuality, if people recognize that queers are everywhere, I do not think it is negative.”Then, are there many queers in SSU that we haven’t heard about? What do they think about their ‘invisibility’ on campus? ST was able to have an interview with Miss ♥, and Miss ?, who are lesbians in SSU and Mr.♣, a member of ‘Come Together’ -a club for queers in Yonsei Univ.- through Mr.♠.

 

music.

♣: I might live like a straight person.

ST: What are some of the difficulties you face in the social system as an ‘Ivan’?

♠: Most of the social systems in Korea are against queers. First of all, an unmarried person is not considered a valuable member of society.

♣: Because I am a student, so far there have not been any particular problems. When I graduate from university, I will face many problems in family, marriage, the economy, etc. The sad thing is that a homosexual is not considerate a legal spouse so this raise problems, when his/her partner gets sick or has an accident. Also, queers prefer to be in the field of law, arts and medicine, because they might have problems like job dismissal or outing (publicizing that someone is queer) in this conservative society.

◆: Homosexuality is a reason to be fired from a job. That is a big problem.

♥ : I think teenaged queers are suffering in this severe society. They need a social system to protect themselves. Whether you are ‘Ivan’ or not, adolescence can be a painful time. For

‘Ivan’, Schools that teaches students that homosexuality is abnormal and a temporary phase might be a distressing for ‘Ivan’. In such a situation, it is impossible to realize their identity.

♣ : This society has inflicted punishment on homosexuals. The documentary film ‘Ivan-gumyul’(Lesbian Censorship in School) reflects this situation.

 

Ivan-gumyul(Lesbian Censorship in School)

 

This film is a documentary which shows that the human rights of the students spotted as queers have their human rights violated in school. ‘Ivan-gumyul’ means restrictions on homosexuals as members of society. A student spotted as a ‘Ivan’ is identified and is under the surveillance of the school. This student is outcast and is beaten by classmates. In this way, the school forces homosexuals to be straight. Thus, homophobia, a hostility towards homosexuality, is institutionalized.

ST: Misunderstandings of straight

♣: When I tell my guy friends that I am a gay, they are afraid I’ll love them. Then, I say “I only have eyes for my partner. Gay people don’t love just anyone.”

♥: People tend to think queers are only interested in sexual life. People tend to think queers are only interested in sexual life. As might be expected, most people seemed to wonder about the life of homosexuals. They thought that if queers do not hide anything about themselves, straight people can have a better understanding of them.

 

ST: People think gay men are effeminate and lesbians are manly.

♠: That is one of the stereotypes that television plants in people’s minds. Of course there are some effeminate gay men but this is not always the case. Some gay men make efforts to look masculine. Like straight people, there are various kind of queers -chubby, muscular, mild, tough, etc. And each person’s taste is diverse.

ST: Many people are wondering about the roles in homosexual relationship.

♣ : Straights people think that homosexual partners take an the role a man and woman as in a straight relationship, and these roles don’t change. But this isn’t always the case. Anyway,

roles are not important in a relationship as long as there is love.

♠: Homosexuals do not always have casual sex. First of all, there are a lot of ways to give a feeling of satisfaction. Moreover, the most important thing is safe sex rather than a sex of pleasure. I recommend using a condoms, whether you are a straight or queer. You can get condoms for free at the i-Shop that Korea Federation for HIV/AIDS Prevention manage. You can also be screened for venereal diseases and get counselling.

♥: People think lesbians have sex like in a pornographic movie. That’s not true. People imagine things based on a stereotype. So, in my opinion, people should receive effective sex education to let them have a correct understanding.

◆: Frankly, it is difficult to expect to learn about safe sex in the reality of Korean education. When lesbians have sex, it is common sense to cut nails and remove nail polish for safe sex. Generally, people consider queers to be potentially HIV positive, but I think straight people are more ignorant of safe sex than queers. ST: Have you ever suffered from outing*?

◆: As for me, I will say honestly that I am a lesbian to my close friends and family. To acquaintances, however, I avoid the issue by using wit.

Outing

  Outing means that regardless of his/her wishes a homosexual person is identified to others in society. Usually, people mix up ‘coming out’ with ‘outing’. They have something in common: his/her identity that has been concealed so far is now disclosed. But ‘outing’ differs from ‘coming out’. ‘Coming out’ has two meanings: queers disclose their identity of their own accord, and acknowledge that they are queer. You can see many writings about ‘outing’ on the web site for queers’ rights. For example, there are frequent cases of physical and mental harm through threats. To homosexuals, outing is an experience that they do not want to face. ‘Outing’ is one of the reasons that queer communities in SSU are not active. This is not only a problem of queers in SSU. Ivan communities in other schools which have a comparatively broad range of activities still have to act very carefully. ♣ said ‘Come Together’ in Yon-Sei Univ. agreed with that. They are also very careful about recruiting new members. “We take applications by online mail, and also have an interview to determine whether he or she is a queer or not. Sometimes there are people who pretend to ivan in order to join the community and try to identify the members. Furthermore some people suddenly open the door of the community and take photos of members. This is reason that community door locked. We also put up posters for public information in the early morning when others don’t hang around outside” they added.

ST: As a Christian mission schools like SSU, it must be hard to have activities as the sexual minority community in Yon- Sei University does.

♣: First of all, I will tell you about what we have done. At the beginning, every year we assemble new members by placing ads in school papers or we put up posters. In April, we have a homecoming day, and the following month, we participate in the film festival hosted by Korea University Ivan communities. In June, we take part as assistant in a camp which is managed by juvenile queer schools. In October we cooperate with other universities like the Seoul National University Ivan community. We focus on meeting a lot of people rather than asserting the rights of sexual minorities. Of course, we have troubles with religions communities. For example, they tear down our posters. However, we anticipate this kind of disturbance, so we

don’t really have much trouble with their activities.

ST: Then what do you think of Christians against homosexuality?

♠: No Comment

♣: We don’t feel a great repugnance for Christians. There is a Christian homosexual church called RoDem Namu. It is just that religion should be about only religious things. and shouldn’t apply it to social issues. I have taken a cultural anthropology class and had a debate about creationism and evolutionism. At the end of debate there was an exhausting quarrels between Christians who believe what the Bible says and people who depend on scientific evidence.

ST: What might be the reason for the broad activities of sexual minorities in Yon-Sei Univ? How can we find the reasons and the solution for the lack of activity of the queers’ community in SSU?

◆: Actually these days we can easily meet homosexual online, so I think homosexuals do not need to meet someone with the same sexual tastes on campus.

♣: ‘Come Together’ is run in secret even though it is a very well known community outside the school. It is because they need to get together in certain places. For a community to be active, first of all it has to have places where the members can meet each other and have events. This can be any place where the members can meet each other and have activities in common purposes such as studying. Events with common purposes bring members closer together.

Groups that are supported and accepted on campus become stronger and more active. But the SSU gay community has difficulties.

 For example ‘Come Together’ has to stay up marking posters for new members. Secondly, for queers’ liberal activities, we need an accepting and open atmosphere on campus, understanding and cooperation of other communities. ‘Come Together’ is also a campus community, so we need to register with the community union. And in order to get registered we need to submit the members’ personal information. Because of the private nature of a sexual minority community, this is impossible and fortunately the community union makes an exception focus. Also I previously mentioned that the campus newspaper aids ‘Come Together’ by running a ad in the newspaper. I think this is how we have been able to operate this sexual minority community.

♥: Frankly speaking, I envy the open and accepting atmosphere on other campuses. I have read a poster of a sexual minority community in Ewha Womans Univ, and of course a Christian community members tried to prevent me from reading poster. However, more surprisingly, the poster had a list of groups that are supporting the ivan’s community.

On the list, there were the press such as the campus broadcasting station and even the Christian union. They help the queers’ community because they knew that it is hard for the community to take an active part in campus. In fact, also in SSU, the posters were put up and the banner was hung on the cafeteria building, but there was no interest in it in 2005. Furthermore, there was no response to the film festival and the accompanying lectures. This is partly a result of the school because when a student’s association candidate brings up homosexuality. In a word, SSU is not prepared to accept queers in the campus.

ST: Is there anything else you would like to say?

♠: I’d like to ask straight people to simply wider their perspective and to treat homosexual as nomal human beings. It may be impossible to understand us, but at least accept us. I’m sure most “Ivans” would agree with me. Furthermore, I hope there will be a more open atmosphere for ‘Ivans’ in SSU campus. The online address for SSU sexual minorities: http://cafe.daum.net/ssuib To tell the truth, before I had this interview, I thought I knew most things about homosexuals and I felt a little nervous. However, as the interview went on I felt a lot more comfortable. After having the interview, I can relate more to homosexual on a human level.

I can reading that they are the same as me in many ways. So what makes these people feel different from others? Most of the people think that a woman marrying a man is a provision of nature. About this matter, Kim, Hyun-goo (the head of PR in i-Shop) said, “Being natural is not because most of the people are doing so. For example there are more right-handed than left-handed people but you cannot say that left-handed people are unnatural.

Sexual minorities just have different sexual tastes.” At the end of the interview, as the homosexual I interviewed requested, I hope you will realize that there can be sexual minorities around you. If you have a chance, why don’t you attend the Queer festival that is held every June in Jong-no and Itaewon. You might meet your friends or family there.

 

 Ahn Tae-geun (ST Reporter)

nasunyoul@ssu.ac.kr

Kim Pil-ji (ST Reporter)

pilji714@ssu.ac.kr