Many overenthusiastic tankies claim that LGBT people are accepted in the DPRK, while your average lib will tell you that Kim Jong-Un will shoot you out of a cannon if you hold hands with the same gender. The reality is neither of these.
First of all, homosexuality is socially looked down upon by the DPRK. A simple search on KCNA will show homophobic comments about Michael Kirby. However, any such article from KCNA should be taken with a grain of salt since it has crazy articles once in a while that don’t accurately depict the official position of the state. Rodong Sinmun is party-run while KCNA is more independent as a state-managed enterprise, so it’s a better way to judge the government’s position on a topic. Rodong Sinmun seems to be absent from any articles discussing this. However, this analysis from Kim Il-Sung university shows that being homosexual is frowned upon in academia; given the importance that social science academia plays in the governance of the DPRK we can understand this is likely reflected some degree in the policies of the government.
Another claim I hear is that while homosexuality is frowned upon in the DPRK, it is not legally punished. Indeed, the DPRK criminal code does not explicitly mention any punishment for homosexuality at all. However, the criminal code does have this rather vague article:
Article 194 (Conduct of Decadent Acts)
A person who watches or listens to music, dance, drawings, photos, books, video recordings or electronic media that reflects decadent, carnal or foul contents or who performs such acts himself or herself shall be punished by short-term labour for less than two years. In cases where the person commits a grave offence, he or she shall be punished by reform through labour for less than five years.
If being gay is considered a decadent act by the government, which it likely is, it is possible that one could face 2-5 years of jail time for this.
I am a big fan of the DPRK and consider it the best example and execution of socialism on Earth. But critical support is still critical, and we must be knowledgable about the DPRK’s shortcomings.
A lot to say without much actual proof. Those things COULD be used to persecute the LGBTQ+ community but that doesn’t mean they are. As could many things, a country could selectively enforce all kinds of much more neutral sounding laws exclusively on gay people as a means of persecution.
I’m sorry but without any proof I’m not ready to go throwing them out and cede to liberals and reactionary anti-communist rainbow-washing forces that they are actually indeed so. There’s so much misinformation about the DPRK it’s not even funny.
That one IF is doing a huge amount of lifting, your argument falls apart when you take it out.
Proof, we need proof, not “I feel like it is”. And yes all countries have persons in them, including those attached to the party who hold backwards views on a variety of things.
In particular I’ll note Eastern notions of frowning on something are not the same as western active persecution. There are also issues of things lost in translation. China doesn’t criminalize being gay but they very much crack down on LGBTQ-CIA organizations (we need a Buttigieg rat emoji) that advance a western, liberal slant.
I make no claims they are some bastion of rights for queer people as they’re likely not given their history and material circumstances but I think this whole post is making a mountain out of a molehill of evidence. You can’t just leap from one conclusion to another more severe one.
At the end of the day cfgaussian’s take is mine but I think OP jumped the shark with a sweeping and unsupported by evidence alarmist proclamation.
100% agree. A few articles on KCNA and a vague legal reference is not enough evidence to make any claims about either the government or citizen’s stances on LGBT ppl and how they are treated and viewed.