South Korean LGBTI Activists Allegedly Denied Entry To Gender Ministry’s National Assembly Audit

The Gender Ministry's National Assembly audit allegedly denied entry to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) activists from South Korea on Monday despite being scheduled early on to attend the event as witnesses, reported Korea Herald on Monday.

According to activists Jeong Min Seok, director of the DDing Dong LGBTQ Youth Crisis Support Center, and Ryu Min Hee, attorney at the Korean Lawyers for Public Interest and Human Rights, the group was invited to the audit session on Oct. 5. However, they were informed by the Assembly's Gender Equality and Family Committee hours later that their invitation was revoked.

Committee Chairwoman Rep. You Seung Hee of the main opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy reportedly made the decision that upset the LGBTI group.

"Every other witness, six of them, who had been previously scheduled to attend the audit ended up attending the audit," said Na Young, one of the LGBTI activists.

The office of Rep. You Seung Hee denied the allegations.

"The chairwoman of the committee cannot finalize the list of witnesses by herself," said Kim In Ah from Rep You's office. "It's untrue that Rep. You denied their entry."

AOL noted on Sept. 15 that the 2013 PEW Research Center Attitudes Survey showed that only 39 percent of South Koreans considered homosexuality acceptable to society, a number far below other developed countries.

Even the gay rights movement in South Korea, which people believe to have started in 1994, was far later than other countries. New York's Stonewall riots, considered a key moment in the gay rights movement, took place in 1969.

The ministry claims that the sexual rights of the minority were insignificant to the Gender Equality Act despite human rights activists' demands of recognizing and validating the gender issue with LGBTI rights. The ministry, however, pointed to the Human Rights Commission and the National Human Rights Commission Act as the ones that should be addressing the issue.

According to the activists, the incident with the Gender Ministry and the gender equality charter of Daejon would be tackled at a meeting in New York this month with the U.N. Women's Policy Director Dr. Purna Sen.