Sexual minorities are often invisible : meet Seoul s only LGBT mayoral candidate
Vandalised campaign posters for Oh Tae-yang, an LGBTQ candidate who is standing in Seoul’s mayoral byelection in South Korea. Photograph: Office of Oh Tae-yang
Vandalised campaign posters for Oh Tae-yang, an LGBTQ candidate who is standing in Seoul’s mayoral byelection in South Korea. Photograph: Office of Oh Tae-yang
Oh Tae-yang was spurred to run for mayor by the deaths of high-profile LGBT figures, and has upset some in conservative South Korea
Mon 5 Apr 2021 19.52 EDT
One morning in late March, Oh Tae-yang awoke to news that his campaign banners, which feature rainbow flags and pledges to work toward same-sex marriage, had been vandalised, torn down and strewn across the ground.
Byun See-Hoo, the first trans soldier in the South Korean military, lost a reinstatement appeal in 2020. She was found dead in her home in Cheongju, South Korea on 3 March 2021. (YouTube/Yonhap News Agency/Korea Now)
The family of South Korea’s first trans soldier has vowed to continue her legal fight against the army.
Byun Hee-soo was discharged from the army after undergoing gender affirmation surgery in January last year. She was a staff sergeant and tank driver in the Gyeonggi province, north of Seoul, before her dismissal.
Byun then launched a landmark legal challenge against the South Korean army over her dismissal, but this was rejected in July.