Members of Christian groups massed in South Korea’s capital Seoul in October 2024 to protest a landmark court ruling on rights for same-sex couples. However, a picture of drag performers that surfaced on social media does not show a counter-protest, as posts claimed. It was taken by The Associated Press news agency during the Seoul Queer Culture Festival in July 2023.
“Gays protesting the October 27 joint worship service,” read Korean-language text overlay on the picture shared on Facebook on October 28, 2024.
South Korean Christian groups staged a mass outdoor worship service in Seoul that gathered more than 100,000 people according to police estimates (archived link).
The rally was in response to a top court ruling in July that same-sex couples are just as eligible for state health insurance benefits as heterosexual common-law partners — a decision activists hailed as a major victory for LGBTQ rights in the country (archived link).
Some newspapers criticised the Christian rally, reporting that “hate speech and misinformation attacking sexual and gender minorities went unchecked” at the event (archived here and here).
The photo spread in similar Facebook posts here, here and here, as well as on Ilbe, a South Korea forum popular with far-right groups.
Comments on the posts suggested social media users were misled to believe the photo showed a counter-protest to the October 27 worship service.
“The mass turnout of the faithful seems to have frightened these gays,” one user wrote.
“We were out there praying for their pitiful souls,” another said.
But there have been no official reports about an LGBTQ counter-protest to the Christian worship service on October 27, 2024.
Moreover, the photo shared on social media is old.
2023 Pride parade
A reverse image search on Google found the picture published by The Associated Press (AP) on July 1, 2023, with the title “South Korea Pride Parade” (archived link).
The AP’s caption read: “Participants wave on a truck during a parade as part of the Seoul Queer Culture Festival in Seoul, South Korea, Saturday, July 1, 2023.”
“Thousands of people gathered on Saturday to enjoy the festival amid opposition from some protesters, Yonhap news agency reported.”
Below is a screenshot comparison between the image shared alongside the false claim on Facebook (left) and the AP’s photo taken in July 2023 (right):
The AP’s photo was published in various news reports about the pride festival, including by the Hong Kong-based newspaper the South China Morning Post and Germany’s Passauer Neue Presse (archived here and here).
The same performers standing aboard a float can also be seen in YouTube footage of the 2023 Seoul Queer Parade, posted with the description it was filmed on July 1, 2023 (archived link).
AFP also took a photo at the 2023 parade, showing the same float at a distance from a different angle.
The Seoul Queer Parade was held on June 1 in 2024, according to the organisation’s website (archived link).
AFP previously debunked a false claim about the turnout at a Pride event in South Korea.
