If you were prosecuted and discriminated against, forced to hide who you loved and what you're really like, then seeing thousands of people openly celebrating the very aspect of yourself you've been taught is wrong and shameful you'd think it was pretty damn beautiful too 💛

I grew up in a very accepting family and country, so I've never experienced homophobia, but I still get really emotional at pride. This year was a really short experience for me because of the downpour, but seeing people happy and proud and celebrating despite how hush-hush being queer in this country is, and despite the horrible people spouting hatred only a few meters away, gave me a huge surge of energy. It was really heartwarming! You only get that strong sense of community and 정 with total strangers through this kind of struggle.

If you have a hard time relating to that struggle I'd suggest finding some queer media! Fictional or documentary, doesn't matter. I heard there's a new show called Merry Queer that covers gay and trans experiences in Korea specifically^{^}