Thousands of gay rights supporters marched under a heavy police guard in the South Korean capital on Saturday as they celebrated the city’s first Pride parade in three years after a COVID-19 hiatus.
Police were on alert as church-backed counterprotesters rallied in nearby streets, highlighting the tensions surrounding the rights of sexual minorities in the deeply conservative country. There were no significant scuffles or disruptions as of Saturday afternoon.
Some of the protesters denounced conservative Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon over the city’s unwillingness to block the “lewd” Pride parade. Gay rights activists are also unhappy with Oh, who in an interview with a Christian newspaper last week said the city may prohibit the Pride event from using the city hall plaza starting next year if this year’s participants “exhibit indecent materials or overexpose their bodies.
Thousands of police officers from nearly 60 units were deployed to watch the demonstrators from both sides, said Kim Man-seok, an official at the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency. Police didn’t immediately provide a crowd estimate but had previously forecasted a turnout of around 40,000 for the dueling events.
British Ambassador Colin Crooks drew cheers as he delivered a speech in Korean, saying “discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity has no place in the 21st century.”
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