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“Beyond Death, Beyond the Discrimination of the Age”: The LGBTQ+ Rights Movement’s Queering the May 18 Spirit in Gwangju

  • Journal of Human Rights Studies
  • Abbr : JHRS
  • 2023, 6(2), pp.285-325
  • DOI : 10.22976/JHRS.2023.6.2.285
  • Publisher : Korean Association of Human Rights Studies
  • Research Area : Social Science > Law > Law of Special Parts > Human Rights / International Human Rights Law
  • Received : November 20, 2023
  • Accepted : December 16, 2023
  • Published : December 31, 2023

Ol Teun Kim 1

1전남대학교 5・18연구소 전임연구원

Accredited

ABSTRACT

The May 18 spirit is not fixed, but is dynamically constructed through discursive contestation. This study analyzes the process by which the LGBTQ+ rights movement in Gwangju (re)defines the spirit of May in the realm of communicative discourse. The most powerful opposing force in the process of queering the May spirit has been the Protestant Right, which has generated a discourse that defines the May 18 spirit as the observance and maintenance of heteronormativity. In contrast, the local LGBTQ+ rights movement in Gwangju has employed a discursive strategy that sheds light on the similarities between the May 18 Gwangju citizens who resisted and were victimized by state violence and queer people who perform non-conforming practices against heteronormativity and are subject to multiple forms of discrimination and violence. By highlighting the minority status of the May 18 Gwangju citizens and queer people, the local movement has defined the meaning of the May spirit as resistance to discrimination and hatred against queer people and as building conditions for a livable life. It has also (implicitly) expanded the spirit of May through the process of (re)defining the Human Rights City as a queer-friendly city. However, despite these counter-discourse practices, a dualistic and hierarchical approach to sex/gender/sexuality has persisted in the dominant representations of May 18. This suggests that interrogating heteronormativity and gender binaries needs to be mainstreamed beyond the LGBTQ+ rights movement and throughout the entire process of recording, remembering, and commemorating May 18.

Citation status

* References for papers published after 2023 are currently being built.