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full screen Demonstration for LGBTQI rights in Seoul, South Korea, in May 2022. Photo: Ahn Young-Joon/AP/TT
South Korea’s Supreme Court recognized new rights for same-sex couples on Thursday. Now cohabiting couples of the same sex can be registered on the same health insurance in the country.
The ruling means that the state must now offer health insurance to a gay man’s partner.
“It is discrimination based on sexual orientation to exclude the couple just because they are of the same sex,” the court ruled.
The case concerns the couple So Seong-wook and Kim Yong-min, who live together and held a wedding ceremony in 2019, but it had no legal validity because South Korea does not recognize same-sex marriage.
In 2021, So Seong-wook sued the National Health Insurance Agency for terminating his partner’s insurance, after the agency discovered they were a gay couple.
The Supreme Court’s decision is seen as a groundbreaking event by the country’s LGBTQI movement. Activists with rainbow-patterned umbrellas wept with joy outside the court. On site outside the court were also Christian organizations demonstrating against the verdict.
South Korea does not recognize same-sex marriage, but homosexual relationships are not illegal. Activists have long called for legislation against discrimination based on sexual orientation.
Amnesty International called the verdict a “historic victory for equality and human rights in South Korea”.