Queer Throughlines: Spaces of Queer Activism in South Korea and the Korean Diaspora

Queer Throughlines draws on years of direct participation, interviews, and ethnography to examine transnational Korean LGBTQ+ activism since the 1990s. Han maps the sites and routes of leftist and queer political movements, highlighting challenges posed by Christian conservatives in both South Korea and the US. The book uses the concept of “throughlines” to weave together a web of movement stories across time and space: a coalition of Los Angeles-based LGBTQ+ activists and allies fighting an anti-gay petition campaign led by Korean immigrant churches; queer activists involved in anti-war protests in Seoul; progressive clergy embracing inclusivity and risking heresy charges and excommunication; and queer and trans activists refusing to be sidelined from visions of political change underway. These moments do not always line up in a straightforward narrative of victory or progress, yet they create powerful lines of solidarity, community, and kinship.

Ju Hui Judy Han is Assistant Professor of Gender Studies at UCLA.

Source: publisher’s website

Contents

Note on Romanization, Translation, and Pronouns
Glossary
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Chapter 1. Against Homophobia in the Diaspora
Chapter 2. Tracing the Queer Left
Chapter 3. Queer and Heretical, Iban and Idan
Chapter 4. Sigisangjo: Out of place in time
Epilogue: Whose Story?
Notes
References
Index