Seoul, South Korea

In a first, lawmakers in South Korea announced, on Wednesday (May 31), that they have proposed the country’s first same-sex marriage bill, reported The Guardian. The bill comes months after a South Korean court delivered a landmark ruling which recognised the rights of same-sex couples in the country. 

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What is the proposed marriage equality bill?

The marriage equality bill has been proposed by a lawmaker from the minor opposition Justice party’s Jang Hye-yeong and co-sponsored by 12 lawmakers across all the main parties. “Family is the most basic unit that forms a larger community called society,” said Jang, at the National Assembly on Wednesday, as quoted by The Guardian. 

Notably, South Korea does not recognise same-sex civil partnerships, but their constitution stipulates that marriage and family shall be established “on the basis of individual dignity and equality of the sexes”. Furthermore, same-sex relations are not criminalised in South Korea but reports suggest that LGBTQ people tend to live under the radar. 

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Therefore, rights activists in the country have long called for legislation against discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, but the anti-discrimination law has not been passed due to a lack of consensus among lawmakers. 

A lawyer at the Marriage Equality Korea civic group, told the Guardian, “It’s a historic moment, but this is just the start,” and called for the bills to be discussed in the assembly “ immediately.” However, the efforts to pass such legislation including the anti-discrimination law have reportedly been opposed by religious groups that claim such moves would “legalise homosexuality”. 

According to a Hankook Research survey, 52 per cent of respondents were against the legalisation of same-sex marriage in South Korea. However, Jang told the United Kingdom-based newspaper, that enacting such laws is a part of the process of achieving social consensus in a democratic society. 

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South Korea’s landmark ruling in February

Earlier this year, the High Court in South Korea ruled in favour of a gay couple, So Seong-wook and Kim Yong-min, when they sued South Korea’s National Health Insurance Service (NHIS) in 2021. 

This came after the insurance service terminated benefits for his partner, Kim whom So had registered as a dependent, after the officials found out they were a gay couple. So and Kim couple had been living together and got married in 2019, but it held no legal validity since the country does not recognise same-sex marriage. 

At the time, the high court had acknowledged that it is difficult to recognise same-sex marriage under the country’s current common law. However, “those in same-sex marriage are fundamentally identical to those in a common-law marriage, except that they are homosexual,” said the court, as per the Yonhap News Agency. 

It added that considering they form “the highly identical union” the withdrawal of the insurance coverage “constitutes discrimination based on sexual orientation” which is also against the state health insurance benefits. 

(With inputs from agencies) 

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