Where Did Local Queer Movements Go?
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This article is an edited and translated version of “Where Did Local Queer Movements Go?” contributed by Mori to the Korean Society for Sexuality and Queer Studies. It reflects on the meaning of LGBTQ+/queer movements in regional areas within Korean society, where nearly everything is concentrated in Seoul.
English Translation: 피웊
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Writer of the original text: Miguel
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News Card Design: 가리
In many parts of the world, the resources of LGBTQ+ movements—funding, human resources, and spaces for discourse—often become concentrated in one place. This concentration leads to the marginalization of regions outside the center, migration toward the center, and the further acceleration of that very concentration. Yet even amid these conditions, there are people in each region who continue to reflect on and practice the meaning of LGBTQ+ movements.
This article is an edited and translated version of “Where Did Local Queer Movements Go?” contributed by Mori to the fourth issue of the webzine Queer Spaces and Regions, published in March 2026 by the Korean Society for Sexuality and Queer Studies. It reflects on the meaning of LGBTQ+ movements in regional areas within Korean society, where nearly everything is concentrated in Seoul. This article has been somewhat edited to fit the purpose of our project. Please click this link to read the full original text in Korean.
Although the following text has been edited, the original author discusses the significance and current state of local queer movements by referring to the various activities of Honyedang, a queer cultural platform in Busan. Information about Honyedang, which carries out a range of local activities including a queer bookstore, small-group gatherings, and social services, can be found on its website, available in Korean only.
Different Conditions for Local Queer Movements Outside Seoul
After working with queer organizations in Seoul and then moving my area of activism to Busan, I began to see things that had not been visible before. The problem of concentration in the capital region does not spare queer movements either. Busan may be called “Korea’s second city,” but in the sense that it is not Seoul, it is no different from other smaller regional cities. There were several fundamental differences between queer activism in Seoul and queer activism in the regions.
First, there is no structure—or only a very weak one—for activists to grow. It would be difficult to say that queer movements in Seoul have a deliberately designed system for cultivating activists. Still, in Seoul, people can naturally learn about issues and the practical work of activism by taking part in internal organizational activities, rallies, campaigns, and other external actions with various queer organizations. They can also expand their networks by talking with senior and fellow activists at after-parties. In addition, it is relatively easy to encounter discussions at the forefront of almost every sub-issue within queer movements by participating in forums and events such as the LGBTQ Human Rights Forum. In Busan, however, such opportunities are hard to find. There is no organization that can serve as a base for learning and growing as an activist, hardly any queer rallies, no senior queer activists to drink beer with at after-parties while talking through concerns, and no LGBTQ Human Rights Forum. (...) The “natural” growth of activists that is possible in Seoul is not possible in the regions.
Second, it is difficult to carry out activism in the same way queer organizations in Seoul do. The National Assembly, the Blue House, political parties, the media, and spaces of discourse are all concentrated in Seoul. For example, when trying to carry out a movement for the legalization of same-sex marriage in a region, it is difficult to imagine what local activists could do “proactively.” They may be able to collaborate with “Marriage for All,” which operates at the national level, and play a supporting role. In any case, however, that kind of work requires creating new modes of activism different from those in Seoul. I also worry that issue-fighting activities, where meaning matters more than enjoyment, can easily lead to activist burnout in local queer movements that lack operational capacity, potentially bringing the local queer movement that has barely been built back to square one. Above all, it is also difficult to find activists who have grown enough to carry out activities dealing with specific issues in the first place.
Third, it is difficult to secure financial stability. Many local queer organizations have not even reached the stage of recruiting regular donors. Even among those that do recruit regular donors, very few run active fundraising campaigns, largely because most do not have paid full-time staff and lack the capacity to conduct fundraising campaigns while being pushed aside by other urgent tasks. (...) The growth of civil society organizations that rely on donations happens through establishing a virtuous cycle of “activity–publicity–fundraising.” In other words, organizations work hard, publicize their work well, and organize fundraising through that publicity to secure resources for larger-scale activities. However, in local queer organizations made up only of unpaid activists, there is usually no capacity for this. They often work hard on activities but fail to publicize them properly, or they post publicity materials well but forget to include information on how to become a regular donor. It is true that queer organizations in Seoul also face poor financial conditions, but the difference between having even one paid activist and having none is significant.
Are Local Queer Movements Necessary?
When local queer activists gather, it is not uncommon for a space to open up where they express disappointment toward “those Seoul people.” They say things like, “Seoul activists have no interest in local queer movements,” “They only come to the regions when there is a Queer Culture Festival,” “They basically just came to Busan for a retreat but thought they had done a local project,” and “During COVID, they held many events on Zoom, but once COVID ended, they stopped.” Still, these conversations always end as complaints. Since we know that Seoul activists are also working under poor conditions and excessive workloads, we hesitate to demand anything more actively from them. Then what do Seoul activists think about local movements? This is only my own arbitrary guess, but I do not think the statement “Seoul activists have no interest in local queer movements” is entirely wrong. At least, that was true of me when I was active in Seoul. Compared with the “important” work I was responsible for in Seoul, local queer movements felt relatively less important, and I thought there was nothing I could really do because of the physical distance. When I heard suggestions that we should hold member gatherings in the regions as well, my first thought was, “It would be nice if we could, but I’m too tired right now.” It also felt burdensome, as though one more responsibility had been placed on me, and the inevitable sense of indebtedness sometimes felt unfair.
After becoming active in Busan, I found myself in the position of expressing disappointment toward “those Seoul people.” Even so, I often hesitated to tell Seoul activists to put more resources into local movements. As mentioned earlier, one reason was that I thought Seoul activists probably did not have much capacity either. But the more fundamental reason was that I myself did not have a persuasive and well-organized answer to the question of “why local queer movements are necessary.” Of course, this does not mean that local movements are unnecessary or unimportant. To break through the frustrating situation in which both sides remain stuck with only disappointment and a sense of indebtedness, we would need to move toward voluntary cooperation based on a shared understanding that revitalizing local movements is just as necessary as the “important” activities taking place in Seoul. Yet in Korea’s short history of queer movements, there has been no clear account of what important role local queer movements can play. Only when there is a role can expectations and interest arise. (...)
Finding the Role of Local Queer Movements
(...)
First, organizing communities is the first thing that must be done when starting a local movement. There is the practical reality that early-stage organizations have no choice but to operate through the voluntary participation of many people without paid full-time staff. At the same time, a community can become vibrant when people with diverse backgrounds and interests come together. If communities are well designed in ways that address the dissatisfaction local queer people have felt with existing community alternatives—for example, the emptiness one cannot help but feel in communities planned solely for socializing itself without any content or shared interest—then it will be possible to organize the participation of many people who have needed a “safe base.”
(...)
Second, local queer movements also have a significant role to play in providing services. Organizations such as Parents and Families of LGBTAIQ People in Korea, which provides self-help groups related to coming out, and DDing Dong LGBTQ Youth Crisis Support Center, which supports LGBTQ+ youth, are among those that most strongly feel the need for local projects. If there is an organization in the region with personnel, space, and networks, local projects can be started much more easily through consignment or collaboration. From the perspective of local organizations as well, collaboration with central organizations can be a major help to operations because it can bring in expertise, project funding, publicity effects, and opportunities to expand networks that are lacking in the region. (...)
Next, at the local level, activities may include responses to local human rights ordinances or responses to discriminatory administration related to local Queer Culture Festivals. These are areas where proper responses require queer movements to be alive on the ground in local communities, making the importance of local movements especially significant. (...)
Fourth, activities in academia, daily life, culture, and the arts may allow local queer movements to take the lead and broaden the base of the queer movement as a whole. Precisely because they are geographically distant from central movements, local queer movements may also be freer from the responsibilities borne by existing movements. While central movements often lack the capacity to do anything beyond “direct” forms of activism such as legislative campaigns and responses to human rights violations, local queer movements can carry out more “indirect” forms of activism. By making queer presence visible across diverse fields such as academia, daily life, culture, and the arts, they can expand the movement into areas that existing movements have not easily reached.
(...)
Even If We Are Queer, Having to Live Only in Seoul Is a Bit Much
There may be people for whom life in Seoul is a good fit, but I was not one of them. I moved to Seoul at the age of twenty, and throughout the ten years I lived there, I think I lived with the identity of a migrant. All I could see outside the bus window were neighborhoods I did not know, the sky was always hazy with fine dust, and the subway was too crowded. Sometimes, when I passed along Gangnam-daero, the enormous buildings lined up on both sides felt deeply strange, and the Han River seemed like nothing more than a giant sewer. Inwangsan, which I climbed one day, was unbearably dirty and worldly. Seoul had no sea. At least for me, Seoul is not a good place to live. And yet the idea that I have to live in Seoul because I am queer makes me somewhat angry. I want to live where I want to live, and I want there to be a queer movement in that place. A community of self-affirmation and mutual care; the most important social safety net one can have as a queer person; a starting point for breaking learned helplessness and exploring the potential of life. Local areas need queer movements as all of these things.
English Translation: 피웊
Translation review: -
Writer of the original text: Miguel
Review and amendments to the original text: -
Web & SNS Posting: Miguel
News Card Design: 가리
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