KMK: Seoul Pride

A few weekends ago my friends and I journeyed to the heart of Seoul, or as close as we could get, and participated in the annual Seoul Pride festival.
Korea has got nothing on Iran as far as claiming to have no gay people so you can imagine that I really wasn’t expecting much of a turn out. I mean, Seoul is a city of over twelve million so there should have been thousands stomping down the streets in rainbow colored fablousness.
The festivities didn’t quite reach those heights, but I was still pleasantly surprised by the turn out. The festival took place near the Berlin Square next to the river walk that runs through downtown.
It only took up a small corner of the block, but the people’s energy and excitement made up for the low numbers.

Whats a pride parade without drag queens? There was also a gay chorus that alternated between sounding like mewling cats in heat and drunken karaoke crooners.
Taking pictures proved to be problematic because some people were wearing red ribbons that I thought meant AIDS awareness, but actually meant don’t take my picture motherfucker because I’m in the closet.
How you march in a Pride parade while wearing a ribbon that signifies your continued suffocation in the closet is a quandry I have yet to solve. Its sort of like a vegetarian who eats chicken. Maybe I’m just being too harsh.
Still, we had a great time following the parade as we circled a section of the river walk, marching to the beat of pulsing dance music which I guess is the theme song to gay liberation. Maybe next year they’ll get the dykes on bikes blazing down the streets.

The river walk proved to be too enticing to ignore for long. We took a minute to cool off in the cold rushing water.