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(1) Dasl Yoon and Timothy W Martin, LGBTQ Win Started as Insurance Mix-Up; South Korean couple's three-year legal saga led to a landmark decision. at page A9.
https://www.wsj.com/world/asia/a ... nce-mix-up-fa3acadd
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/w ... -mix-up/ar-AA1oL9di
Note:
(a) In MSN photos (which do not appear in print) Mr So is the one with round face.
(b) The print version (attached below) is more condensed than the online one.
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SEOUL—For most of 2020, Kim Yong-min and So Sung-uk enjoyed joint family coverage with the nation’s public health insurer. Then an abrupt call severed their government benefits. A mistake had been made, an insurance representative explained to Kim.
“We didn’t realize your partner was also a man,” the caller told Kim.
Nullan act of discrimination that “violates human dignity and value.”
South Korea has artificial intelligence pop singers, robot baristas and drone deliveries. Despite those modern flourishes, the country lags far behind other wealthy democracies on LGBTQ rights. Same-sex couples can’t legally marry; civil unions are nonexistent. Just one in eight South Koreans say they even know someone who is gay or lesbian, recent polling shows.
Many LGBTQ individuals in the country are closeted, condemned and censored. A recent Human Rights Watch report that documented the frequent bullying experienced by South Korea’s sexual minorities was titled: “I Thought of Myself as Defective.”
Now, many supporters of the LGBTQ community hope the ruling could open the way to more rights. Elsewhere, including the US, court victories have served as steppingstones to same-sex marriage.
Kim, 34 years old, and So, a year younger, became rare public faces for LGBTQ causes.
“Hiding my identity was never an option for me,” So said. “I knew it wouldn’t be easy but I never doubted that we would win this case.”
The recent ruling is likely applicable to a wider range of government services and entitlements, South Korean lawyers and activists say. And once courts provide same-sex couples the protections afforded to married households, the argument against same-sex marriage becomes increasingly difficult, said Ryan Thoreson, an assistant law professor at the University of Cincinnati focusing on human rights.
“The public storytelling around these cases is essential for non-LGBTQ people to understand what’s at stake,” Thoreson said.
Kim and So met in 2012 at a local district office’s architectural department, while completing alternative military service to comply with South Korea’s mandatory conscription for young men. The military has a law that bars same-sex relations. Men can opt out of traditional service for personal, political or religious reasons. After meeting So, Kim came to the realization that he was bisexual. The two became a couple over drinks. Unable to summon the right words as the discussion turned toward a potential relationship, Kim asked So to give him a call. The phone buzzed. A ballad began playing with the lyrics, “The door opens,” the song went, “Can I love you?”
Kim admitted he spent three hours searching for the right ringtone song.
So was the one who proposed, Though same-sex marriage isn't recognized in South Korea, around 300 people watched as the two men walked together down the aisle in 2019. Kim's mother and sister refused to attend, as did So’s father, who said he would rather the couple “live quietly.”
For their honeymoon, Kim and So chose Spain after seeing it atop a global ranking of LGBTQ-friendly countries. They held hands in public, something they rarely do in South Korea. They saw two men kiss in front of the train station.
“We were the only ones who found it strange, so unfamiliar,” Kim said.
Kim was aware that the South Korean government afforded some healthcare benefits to unmarried, heterosexual couples living together. He decided to test the boundaries by declaring So as his spousal dependent in 2020.
Nearly a dozen attempts to pass an antidiscrimination bill have failed in South Korea since 2007. Among 38 members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development—a grouping of mostly wealthy nations—only South Korea and Japan lack such legislation. Same-sex marriage is legal in more than 35 countries, but in Asia it is limited to Taiwan, Nepal and Thailand. It has support of just two-fifths of South Koreans, according to the Pew Research Center. That is lower than the Asia-wide median of roughly 50%, Pew said.
Days after applying for the joint coverage, Kim and So looked in awe at their online health-insurance account. Next to So’s name describing his relationship with Kim was the word “spouse.” It was the first government recognition that they were a family -- and saved them about $25 a month.
Things went smoothly for eight months. But after granting an interview where they sought to inform other LGBTQ couples of the benefits, problems emerged -- including the cancellation call came.
“If they hadn’t recognized our relationship in the first place, I wouldn’t have cared so much,” Kim said. Kim and So sued the national health insurer. During the first trial, one judge asked: “How would one know whether you two are brothers, friends or a couple?”
That district court sided with South Korea’s national health insurer. But an appeals court ruled in Kim and So’s favor. The insurer’s appeal escalated the case to the Supreme Court, which last month ruled for Kim and So.
So called his parents. For the first time, his father congratulated the couple.
Days later, So and Kim headed to Germany for vacation. There is a sense of liberation in LGBTQ-friendly countries, the couple said, but leaving South Korea permanently isn’t an option. They know that of LGBTQ couples's [sic] few benefits in Korea, one is the result of their efforts.
“I’ve thought about living in another country,” So said. “But it’s worth it to stay and change things here.”
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发表于 8-14-2024 14:53:16
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