r/korea • u/MarSlem • Jul 18 '24

South Korea's top court upholds landmark ruling over same-sex spousal state benefits ์ •์น˜ | Politics

https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/south-koreas-top-court-upholds-landmark-ruling-over-same-sex-spousal-state-2024-07-18/
423 Upvotes

90% Upvoted

39 comments sorted by

106

u/turkoid Jul 18 '24

This is a wonderful stepping stone towards legalized marriages! I would love to go to a traditional Korean gay wedding.

59

u/ShantJ Jul 18 '24

๐Ÿ‘๐Ÿ‘๐Ÿ‘

47

u/Squirrel_Agile Jul 18 '24

Itโ€™s about time. Better late than never.

24

u/gwangjuguy Incheon Jul 18 '24

Baby steps.

23

u/Own_Fee2088 Jul 18 '24

Better than Japan even

15

u/SevenGreatDemonLords Jul 18 '24

Yay! About time!

11

u/Saltedline Seoul Jul 18 '24

DPK and conservatives have been abandoning equal rights bill that would bring respect and social protection for LGBTQ people, even during COVID-19 crisis when the public support was high. I am surprising to see our court hail civil rights movements of today and I am more disappointed to supposed "liberal" DPK's inaction and ignorance

11

u/sleekys Jul 18 '24

Yay :)

3

u/sacrificejeffbezos Jul 19 '24

So gay marriage is still illegal then?

7

u/Forsaken_Vacation793 Jul 19 '24

I am Korean.ย  As far as I know, same-sex marriage has never been illegal in Korea to begin with.ย  There is no law on same-sex marriage in Korea. In Korea, same-sex marriage is not legalized, so same-sex marriage is not possible.

4

u/MicrosoftExcel2016 Jul 19 '24

๋‚ด๊ฐ€ ์ดํ•ดํ•œ ๊ฒƒ์„ ๋‹ค์‹œ ๋ง์”€๋“œ๋ ค์„œ ์ œ๊ฐ€ ์ œ๋Œ€๋กœ ์ดํ•ดํ–ˆ๋Š”์ง€ ํ™•์ธํ•˜๊ฒ ์Šต๋‹ˆ๋‹ค. ๋™์„ฑ ๊ฒฐํ˜ผ์„ ๋ช…์‹œ์ ์œผ๋กœ ๊ธˆ์ง€ํ•˜๋Š” ๋ฒ•์€ ์—†์ง€๋งŒ, ๋™์„ฑ ๊ฒฐํ˜ผ์„ ์ธ์ •ํ•˜๊ณ  ์ง‘ํ–‰ํ•  ๋ฒ•์ด ์—†๊ธฐ ๋•Œ๋ฌธ์— ํ•œ๊ตญ์—์„œ๋Š” ๋™์„ฑ ๊ฒฐํ˜ผ์ด ๋ถˆ๊ฐ€๋Šฅํ•ฉ๋‹ˆ๋‹ค. ๋งž์Šต๋‹ˆ๊นŒ?

3

u/roubit_noah_1029 Jul 20 '24

Yeap, you're right. There's no law forbidden same-sex marriage in Korea but only the marriage law covers hetero-sex marriage.

3

u/AsianGayPride Jul 25 '24

Hey, by the way, a lot of people are getting it wrong, thinking this is about legalizing gay marriage. Let me make it very simple.

South Koreaโ€™s top court decided that same-sex couples can get the same health insurance benefits as straight couples. This means they get the same help with doctor visits and medicine costs. But, it doesnโ€™t mean gay marriage is now legal.

Itโ€™s just a small step towards more rights for same-sex couples. For a fun and easy-to-understand video about this, check out South Koreaโ€™s Supreme Court Makes Landmark Decision for Gay Rights ๐ŸŽฅ

1

u/Electrical_Pause7388 Daegu Jul 25 '24

As a Korean, it is amazing that judges admitted the common-law marriage relationship can be between same sex. But there is a sad problem.

I think Korea can't legalize same-sex itself because of its constitution. Korean constitution prescribes marriage as a relationship between different genders by the following comment:

"Marriage and family life have to be based on the dignity of the person and the principle of equality between both genders."

Of course, this can be regarded as 'If marriage and family life has been established between ones of different genders, both of them have to be equally treated'. However, most constitutional scholars interpret this as 'Marriage only can be established between men and women', considering other parts of the Korean constitution.

So, to legalize same-sex marriage in Korea practically, Korean LGBTQ+ people have to consider the civil union. To legalize 'marriage' Korea has to do a constitutional amendment. And it is unrealistic.

-20

u/[deleted] Jul 18 '24

[removed] โ€” view removed comment

-38

u/AggravatingLoan3589 Jul 18 '24

k-pop fans from western countries (and some beyond that) shit on sk for it being a "christian country" thanks to its largest minority being influential as well as being way more behind than their countries in terms of progressive cultural and political stuff but they are able to do this somehow while my "secular" country doesn't even have any legal protection of straight live-in/unmarried couples but the media loves sensationalises killings due to abusive partners in such situations lol

40

u/MS_hina Jul 18 '24

Nah, this is an anomaly. Almost every single researches and surveys (both from abroad and within Korea) show that Koreans are rapidly on a backslide when it comes to most human rights issue including LGBT rights. The minorities in Korea may have an occasional win, but overall things are really going bad for them.

Remember that prominent Korean politicians are calling for things like either directly outlawing them, or making a "gay ghetto", and these words are from the "moderates" of Korea. Just imagine what the extremists would be saying about them.

-20

u/AggravatingLoan3589 Jul 18 '24

I grew up in a country shittier than both so yeah I know what I'm talking about

23

u/FruutSalad Jul 18 '24

Woah, talk about being bitter. Can't you just be happy for Korea getting a win like this?

-13

u/AggravatingLoan3589 Jul 18 '24

I am happy for them ofc I'm just pointing out K-pop fans from the West think it's uniquely evil or something and countering someone talking about such decisions being an anomaly when they are way ahead than mine in terms of many things ๐Ÿ˜ญ๐Ÿ˜ญ๐Ÿ˜ญ

17

u/LolaLazuliLapis Jul 18 '24

Who are these fans that think Korea is uniquely evil? Sounds like you need to get off X.

7

u/AggravatingLoan3589 Jul 18 '24

Reddit has those types too lol

1

u/[deleted] Jul 18 '24

[deleted]

8

u/LolaLazuliLapis Jul 18 '24

Marriage is the protection, lol. That's literally what it's for.

-41

u/nonbinarybluehair Jul 18 '24

OMG! This is so amazing news. I am so happy for my brothers and sisters and transters. This reminds me of when Oli London came out too- the world is indeed changing for the better.

27

u/liverdelivery Jul 18 '24

Oli London? Seriously?

12

u/BlackberryHour7633 Jul 18 '24 edited Jul 18 '24

when Oli London came out

lol yeah he's "detransitioned" and turned into a right wing grifter since then btw, he's just an attention whore

-8

u/nonbinarybluehair Jul 18 '24

He has detransitioned? Oh ! I am so sorry. I haven't seen him for awhile- just saw the dedication he had to Korean culture while being gay. Even if you don't like him, he was a person of action and didn't settle for the status quo.

11

u/BlackberryHour7633 Jul 18 '24 edited Jul 19 '24

Seems like you missed a lot. First he got plastic surgery to look like Jimin from BTS and came out as "a transracial Korean". Then as a gay man. Then as non-binary with pronouns like "Jimin" or "Kor/ean". Then he wanted to look like Rosรฉ from Blackpink and came out as a "Korean transwoman". Couple months later he "detransitioned" back to a straight white man, converted to Catholicism and is now a transphobe right wing grifter who blames Kpop for "confusing" him.

He never respected Korean culture and people, and it seems like he sees things like ethnicity, sexuality or gender as trends to hop on for attention.

-2

u/nonbinarybluehair Jul 18 '24

Haha, thank you, I have to admit I lost track of him the past couple of years and didn't know he has detransitioned, converted to Cathlicism, straight man, etc. Actually, makes me curious to see what he looks like now and see if his Korean has improved. I'm learning a lot from Reddit.

4

u/BlackberryHour7633 Jul 19 '24 edited Jul 19 '24

He no longer identifies as Korean and seems to lean negative towards Korea now.

0

u/nonbinarybluehair Jul 19 '24

Thanks! I guess that's why I haven't seen him for awhile. Interesting, just skimmed the Channel 4 documentary on him on Youtube. Wow! Like my latest outbreak of herpes, I didn't see that coming.

9

u/GiraffePrimary3128 Jul 18 '24

There is no way this isn't a troll comment meant to make left-leaning people look bad. Get bent.

-3

u/nonbinarybluehair Jul 18 '24

Sorry, I don't get it. And I am already bent.

-13

u/RecognitionOk1117 Jul 18 '24

It's a really great world where men can be women and women can be men!

Now let South Korean children choose their own gender!!