Over 1000 Police Officers Defy Direct Orders To Protect LGBTQ+ Pride Event In South Korea

According to media reports on June 18, city officials in South Korea’s southern city of Daegu tried to stop an annual LGBTQ+ pride festival, but the police stepped in to protect the organizers and ensured the event could proceed.

Participants of the 15th Daegu Queer Culture Festival carrying banners and flags while marching on the street in Daegu | Yonhap

The clash happened on Saturday, when hundreds of Daegu officials, led by Mayor Hong Joon Pyo, started stopping trucks of the festival organizers from entering the venue in the Dongseongno district. When the police tried to dissuade them, the city workers got into a physical altercation with them. Consequently, police had to forcibly remove them to ensure the safety of the organizers and to allow the “legitimate” event to proceed.

City workers being forcibly removed from the site

Hong Joon Pyo was the former leader of the now-defunct conservative Liberty Korea Party and is known for supporting anti-LGBTQ+ ideologies. Before this physical opposition, he led the city’s business owners and church leaders in a motion for an injunction, which asked to ban the Daegu Queer Culture Festival. Their claim was that so many people on the streets would disrupt local businesses.

Daegu’s mayor led the officials into a physical altercation with the police

But the court’s ruling was in the festival’s favor, as it justified that the freedom of expression could not be suppressed for freedom of business. They hold equal weightage in the law’s eyes.

The Daegu Queer Culture Festival is one of the largest pride events in the country. It started in 2009 and has constantly faced protests and opposition to the event. In 2014, 28 different groups, including local churches and right-wing organizations, came together to form a committee to pressure the city into canceling the event.

| Reuters

Daegu is also not the only city to face disruptions in organizing pride events. Seoul’s Queer Culture Festival, the biggest event of its kind in the country, also faced pushback this year. A civic committee voted to move the event from its usual venue, the Seoul Plaza and gave the spot to the organizers of a Christian youth concert instead.