South Korea capital cancels queer festival over Christian event
The Seoul Metropolitan Government announced this past week that it had cancelled its approval for the organizers of the 24th annual Seoul Queer Culture Festival, to hold the massive LGBTQ event scheduled for July 1 at Seoul Plaza.
The huge central plaza is located in front of Seoul City Hall at Taepyeongno, Jung-gu in the South Korean capital city. The daily English-language newspaper the Korea Times reported that the SQCF organizing committee and Christian Television System Culture Foundation had both applied to book the plaza for their respective events on April 3, 90 days before their events scheduled for July 1.
Since 2015, the event has been held in front of the city hall, except for 2020 and 2021 when the COVID-19 pandemic rules prevented any public gatherings.
The festival has drawn thousands of attendees each summer to downtown Seoul, supported by human rights groups, university clubs and foreign embassies.
