Seoul Queer Culture Festival | Space Denied

Condemnation over Denial of Rental Space for LGBT Festival

SEOUL, KR — (10-28-24) — South Korea’s Human Rights Commission condemned city officials for denying rental space for the country’s upcoming Seoul Queer Culture Festival, saying that it violates the Equality Rights law. The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) was outraged following the decision to deny rental space by the Seoul Museum of History and the Seoul city government’s public activities support center.

Official say the decision was made because authorities did not want confrontation from anti-LGBT protesters and decided to deny the space. The Seoul Queer Culture Festival, the biggest local festival for the country’s LGBT community, is being discriminated against with this groundless violation of the right to equality. In fact the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) is recommending that the institutions revise their operational regulations to prevent a recurrence.

“If the institutions’ arguments are accepted, sexual minority groups would be unable to use the facilities in the future … resulting in these institutions, meant to support citizens’ public activities, arbitrarily restricting various civic activities,” said National Human Rights Commission in their official statement.

Article by: Paul Goldberg, Staff Writer

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