Gay Korea III: Interview with Mr. X

Well, didn't have a picture for the topic

The following article was intended on being published on our university's English language journal, however, it never came quite close to being published. It has already been a year since. 

As I still had the transcript of the interview, I thought I might just as well publish it here. 

[Note: The interview was conducted without any recordings. Thus, the following text is straight out from my tiny brain. I have made sure that it is presented in such a way it stays true to what the interviewee had to say]

Interview with Mr.X*:

*name changed 

Interviewers take on Mr. X: Calm, composed, open and very comfortable about who he was.

Regarding his “coming out”:

I needed to drink a bit to actually admit to one of my closet friends that I was gay *laughs*. Surprisingly, he was completely fine with it. He accepted me for who I was and it gave me courage to open up to few more of my friends. That being said, I have not yet opened up to majority of my friends. I have to suppress a part of me when I hang around them.

Regarding the darker times:

There were periods when you had no one to talk to. I was into this one guy in high school but I was not sure whether if he was gay. When I did finally approach him, he said he wasn’t. So basically I was lonely, I had no one to talk to and I was depressed at that time. The only person I thought I could share something didn’t turn out to be gay.

Regarding his future:

I want to have a normal life. By normal I mean getting married, having a family and all those kinds of stuff. I do see a future in Korea, and although it will be challenging, I wish to live here. However, if things do get tricky, I will possibly reside abroad where gay community is more open.

Regarding South Korea and homosexuality:

Things are starting to change. Only yesterday there was this picture up on the internet showing this famous gay director kissing his fiancé. They plan on suing the legislative to change the definition of marriage and allow homosexuals to get married.

Since public figures are slowly coming out, I can definitely be hopeful of the future. It is a taboo subject to talk about and something that people tend to shun away from, but I am sure, with time and better understanding, the people will see gays for who they are.

Regarding QIS [the Queer club] in SNU:

I am not in the group so I cannot say much.

Regarding the mandatory 2 year army training:

It is definitely scary. Imagining being there with all the guys around is something that will be really hard. South Korean army has strict regulations against coming out gay during the army service, so keeping it in and leaving a part of you at home will be the key. If I did it all those years, I can definitely do it now.

Regarding his personal life now:

I feel very comfortable now. Although I had already accepted myself as who I was a long time ago, my boyfriend has been able to help me out understand homosexuality a lot better. It is great to have people around you whom you can share your problems, get advice and most importantly, be who I am. 

Regarding “coming out” in the family:

My sister knew that something was different about me some time back. She had even tried telling this to my mom who denied that such a thing existed. I will be coming out gay in my family very soon and it will be interesting to see what will happen. As I am not really close to them, I guess they will just take it in. My sister has no problem with me being gay, so for now it is good.

Regarding the bible thing:

I am not religious expert but I feel that bible is manmade, and anything that is manmade could have errors. For those of you who are adamant that existence of gay is not possible, I think you should change your perspective. The fact that I exist is telling. I feel values towards humanity come before religious values. 

You can read further articles on homosexuality in Korea here:
Dont Ask Dont Tell: Gay Korea [Here]

Gay Korea II: Defining Gay [Here]