Queer Protest! Solidarity and the Formation of Minority Politics in South Korea

(2021). Queer Protest! Solidarity and the Formation of Minority Politics in South Korea. Korea Journal, 61(4), 20-43, https://doi.org/10.25024/kj.2021.61.4.20

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Abstract

This paper offers an overview of the history of queer activism in South Korea, paying special attention to the formation of yeondae (solidarity) and sosuja jeongchi (minority politics) in queer politics since the 1990s. In particular, this paper engages in the ways in which queer activism has aligned and/or conflicted with broader social movements in postauthoritarian South Korea. This paper traces the radical kernel of queerness in practicing solidarity based on anti-capitalist and feminist critiques, bridging a range of forms of social marginality in South Korea. Queer activists have contested heteronormativity in mass protests and critically intervened in the democratic nation-building process of the liberal regimes of Kim Dae-jung (1998–2003), Roh Moo-hyun (2003–2008), and Moon Jae-in (2017–present) presidencies, as well as the Candlelight Protests (2016–2017) against Park Geun-hye. In curating and portraying six historical scenes of queer protests, this paper illuminates queer activist labor to imagine a new futurity based on minority politics.

keywords: queer activism, solidarity, minority politics, protest, LGBTQ, feminism, social movement

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Article Contents

Vol.61 No.4

Queer Protest! Solidarity and the Formation of Minority Politics in South Korea

Abstract

Reference

Korea Journal