TV & Movie / Sep. 17, 2019
Actor and restaurateur 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 rema(XwgZqzrH&#G0aA5SiZ3#GF&flS_LyA9EFB(LGQM8jCGwroKUQrks 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 believe the "wrong 7x$ogi0e1UaDc5zMxrYzqHK4zYCBexs-fpXfwkqRPoIDzjMBZ$information” and “fake news”.
The show's presenters and guests made comments such as “we don’t hate Hong Seok-cheon, we oppose his homosexual behaviouK35SMxw=s!9MBrOTkGB#Z8v43c28DTWpp%=z_6F%NIHjp=SGCGr”.
They claimed he spends five hours each day going to the toilet. And, they said they hoped he “escapes” homosexuality,)W=I5DW!vnhQB2Qm(JgJQ*5N4gwGOv#v)4Ze$zddi^Xl5pZ4$w according to a translation by a local journalist.
South Korea’s out celebrities
South Korea is an incredibly conserfdVY&pWSar3Tu2H%&xdehAg8=wH^U@X6&32+^_E#T7z9nnYFw0vative country 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 groupsxN=Wd2X6JmXYWcNX=6RaVu_FX=lX$o*AZczNW1tsFVB-bRlf%I have warned of backsliding LGBT rights. “Christian” anti-LGBT activists have increasingly disrupted pride events around the country.
When Hong came out in 2000@-7f8bnrowQkFHALStYFd76amOSX=GjN8#xyufYv2o@k$9q(q6 he was fired from presenting a children’s TV show. 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 single Neverland showed th=w_ZQnR(wSGef%U(0%tKmsd+mxVYLN3AP-Z*Xo@6sWrdQ3^Q7ee story of a boy facing discrimination.
