You know, there are very few celebrities who are openly coming-out in Korea. In 2000, a famous actor Hong Suk-chun came out under the unavoidable situation and was soon removed from all the shows he appeared in. So some of the furious gay community made a group to support Hong’s coming-out, in which I attended plucking up the courage. At that time, I was only 21 years-old and I got started my career as a gay activist through this group.

Now I’m writing a dissertation for my Ph.D in film studies. It’s about Korean queer films. Before that, I also wrote a master’s thesis dealing with the same subject and the title is ‘The Ethics of Representation in Korean Male Homosexual Cinema’. When I finished my thesis in 2008, it happened that it was the first thesis wholly dedicated to Korean queer films in Korea.

I have only one sibling who is a brother and a year younger than me. One day, he called me drunkenly and asked me when I was supposed to tell him the fact that I was gay. I was too shocked to say anything for a moment. It might be that he found my writings about homosexuality on the internet. He said he waited with patience for my coming out researching homosexuality everyday to understand me, and was worried about the worst situation caused by my sexuality such as suicide or AIDS. He cared about me just as his precious brother per se so it didn’t matter to him that I was gay. I’m so thankful for his careful concern.

Actually, I don’t know exactly what’s the difference between gay community in Seoul and ones in other Asian major cities such as Tokyo, Taipei and Singapore. I think they are getting more similar to one another with all the bigger circuit parties and pride parade. That’s a kind of global trend in gay scene, but rather I can find the notable difference in the more organized homophobia force based on Christian fundamentalism in Seoul than any other Asian cities.