Seoul —
Hundreds of thousands of members of South Korean Christian groups held a church service in Seoul on Sunday to protest a landmark court ruling that gave same-sex partners the right to national health insurance.
In July, the Supreme Court upheld a High Court ruling that same-sex partners are entitled to spousal benefits from the National Health Service, a move that marks a shift in the number of LGBTQ people in the country, which lags behind other countries in the region. It was hailed as a victory for the rights of
Hundreds of thousands of Christians from all over the country gathered for Sunday’s mass worship service, disrupting traffic on several major roads in central Seoul.
According to Yonhap News, citing police, as many as 230,000 people participated, and organizers say as many as 1.1 million people participated. A call to the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency went unanswered.
Organizing committee spokesperson Kim Jeong-hee said the ruling was unconstitutional because same-sex marriage is not legal.
“I think that’s just the starting point for a policy to legalize same-sex marriage,” Kim said. “We see this not just as a Christian problem, but as a huge crisis that shakes the foundations of our nation.”
The court said that because the National Health Insurance Act had no provisions regarding same-sex unions, denying such people benefits amounted to discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.
Some of the participants held placards that read “No to anti-discrimination laws” and “Protect children from gender contamination, gender confusion, and gender division destruction.”
A coalition of hundreds of LGBTQ activists and Catholic and Anglican organizations issued a statement calling communal service a denial of the values of inclusion, diversity and respect for human rights, and an attempt to violate the human rights of minorities. It was criticized as an attempt to majority.
