According to a statistic data in 2013, homosexuality is legal in South Korea, and 39% of the population think the society should accept homosexuality (Pew Research Center, 2013). However, back in the history, Korea was also having lots of homosexuals people in historical figures. This post of Korea is going to be mainly focus on Joseon Dynasty (1392 – 1910). The time range of the dynasty was close to the time when samurais were ruling the society in Japan. So you may find some differences while reading the archive!

“Sejong, the 4th Choson ruler, convened a meeting of his Cabinet on October 24, 1436, to discuss the rumors that his daughter-in-law had been sleeping with her maidservant. ” (Utopia)

This is an archive that gives 4 historical figures who were homosexuals. The website shows back in the past, most ruling people were tended to be homosexuals by giving the names and eras of the history. The author and the date of this article is not shown. However, it is a credible website by looking at “About Utopia”. It says the website is recognized by TIME Magazine, Lonely Planet, Yahoo!, Gay Times, Advocate and BBC World Service. (Homosexuality in the Korea Historical Record)

It is a significant item in this archive because it gives you the real examples of historical figures in Korea at different time periods. In this website, you may find the similarity between Korea and Japan.

This is a movie called “King and the Clown” directed by Lee Joon-ik in 2005. It is a 2 hours long movie, and it gave a great influence to the society at that time. The movie took place in Joseon Dynasty, and the story is about the homosexuality relationships in the court. It’s said that the movie is about homosexuality, because it actually had some scenes that you would connect to the sexuality.

This is an important item in the archive. It is a movie, which can provide some visible pictures of how people were thinking about  LGBT during Joseon Dynasty. Not only that, this movie is also an representative pop culture of LGBT in 2005.

If you click the link from the name of the movie, it will directs you to the website of the full video. If you are also interesting to look at the film analysis, the link is “The King And The Clown|Analysis” written by a student who was in Film Studies class in UK.

“They were generally young widowers who took young good-looking teenage boys as lovers. ” (Neff, 2013)

This is an article, “Homosexuality in Joseon Kingdom era” written by Robert Neff in April 5, 2013. The article is talking about what kind of relationships Korean had in Joseon Dynasty. The article often mentions Western people who went to Korea at that time and talking what they saw, and how the society noticed the homosexuality.

This is also an important item, because it has a perspective of Western countries. Also in the article, it gives one of the evidences that made the society realize homosexuals, and this evidence became to a problem of homosexuals that is still existing in Korea. This might be the key of changing in the society’s attitude towards the LGBT community.