I agree. I wish I could gift you a free article as I’ve a subscription but can’t do it anonymously. The paywall kicks in after a few free articles so out of frustration, I decided to subscribe a few years ago. Their reporting is not always good but in some areas including SK, it is good. This article is about a trio of LGBTIQ performers who are the first out fledgling idol group called QI-X.
An excerpt:
“ What makes them unusual is that they are proudly out — in their music, their relationship with their fans and their social activism. They call themselves one of the first openly queer, transgender K-pop acts, and their mission has as much to do with changing South Korea’s still-conservative society as with making music.
In the group’s name — pronounced by spelling out the letters — Q stands for queer, I for idol and X for limitless possibilities. Park Ji-yeon, the K-pop producer who started QI.X, says it is “tearing down the heteronormative walls of society.”
Very few K-pop artists, or South Korean entertainers in general, have ever been open about being lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or queer. Though the country has become somewhat more accepting of sexual diversity, homophobia is still prevalent, and there are no legal protections against discrimination’.
