OAN’s James Meyers
7:55 AM – Friday, October 27, 2023
A South Korean constitutional court ruled it is unlawful to have same-sex relations within the country’s military.
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In a five-to-four vote the court upheld the law, citing a possible risk to the military’s combat readiness and undermining discipline.
South Korea law requires men between the ages of 18 and 28 to serve in the armed forces for almost 20 months.
However, activists were critical of the ruling, claiming it will only incite violence and discrimination against gay military members.
The ban has “institutionalized discrimination, reinforced systematic disadvantages faced by LGBT people and risked inciting or justifying violence against them, both inside the military and in everyday life”, Amnesty International East Asia researcher Boram Jang said in a statement.
Activists have been calling for the country to get rid of the law. South Korea’s Supreme Court last year overturned a military court’s conviction of two soldiers sentenced to suspended prison terms for a consensual same-sex relationship.
This was the fourth time since 2002 that the court upheld the law, which comes with a prison sentencing of up to two years if violated.
“This continued endorsement for the criminalization of consensual same-sex acts within the Korean military is a distressing setback in the decades-long struggle for equality in the country,” Boram Jang, Amnesty International’s East Asia researcher, said in a statement after Thursday’s ruling.
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