TV & Movie / Sep. 17, 2019
Actor and r1^3S)sjU_^PTWiqiEMj42Zn+@yA0YvJNmdgm@R!BIzL3n4dDYVestaurateur Hong Seok-cheon, one of South Korea’s only openly-LGBT celebrities, is considering suing a Christian YouTube channel after it aired an episode making a slew of homophobic remarks about him.
“Should I sue this for defamation?” Hong asked on his Instagram while sharing a screenshot of the Rainbow Returns chat show.
“I’m so uncomfortable with this,” he wrote. “Prejudice against us [LGBT people] will accumulate again”.
He said he worried that all 100,000 viewers of the show would bOqkdd8^SCEXW#Ltedc&#)5_b_wvBeR^O5M)aTJAy58_%gG%C8celieve the "wrong information” and “fake news”.
The show's presenters and guests made comments such as “we don’t hx00$%DG5O%fI#mexP(WX&2W#DVp+*BgZ@giYCFB!pQKl!9$j#Eate Hong Seok-cheon, we oppose his homosexual behaviour”.
They claimed he spends five hxlxs^DvN6y9dHhHU%WTb*lb$Y3MIWq$^AmGbv)Y4*X#BD3dHTeours each day going to the toilet. And, they said they hoped he “escapes” homosexuality, according to a translation by a local journalist.
South Korea’s out celebrities
South Korea is an incredibly conservative cx9vi+&XeDw1Lu-l97l7AjHe3huQ-Dz+bYc9sKr^v&JIH7^%ywgountry when it comes to LGBTI rights. While homosexuality is not a crime, social stigma forces many LGBTI people not to come out.
Hong is one of only a handful of out celebrities.
Recently, rights groups have warned of backsliding LGBT rights. “Christian” anti-LGBT activists have increasingly disrupted pride events around the countytu3Tm_VT2jL@J9saU@=5raVrBWRrKGY!*+FNhbi6(&hNu^R^Ary.
When Hong came out in 2000 he was fired from presenting a children’s TV s)dr60A(ACwTFjf@qwVoQJN&GJz$!wwli9dZ#D816yUPVnTtYcEhow. Since then he has become a restauranteur and film actor.
An artist known as Holland is widely touted as the world’s first openly-gay K-pop idol. His debut singMjWk@KqUNFmUgVVJWcsHhx3n_ASNO@yv_(3N9d@MD*sCgPwVZtle Neverland showed the story of a boy facing discrimination.
