Banal Security, Queer Korea in the Time of Viruses

Author

Gitzen; Timothy

Year

2023

Publisher

Helsinki University Press

Language

English

Pages

ISBN

978-9-52369-082-0

Link

Last Update

31-Mar-2026

Keywords

Anthropology ; International Relations ; security-studies-discipline ; Sociology

Description

I was sitting in the gallery of South Korea’s Constitutional Court on April 28, 2016, waiting for a ruling regarding the constitutionality of the military’s anti-sodomy clause (Article 6 of Section 92). Military service has been mandatory for all able-bodied Korean men since 1957, and there has been a version of this anti-sodomy clause in the Military Penal Code since 1962, though earlier versions appeared in the Japanese codes during their colonial rule of Korea (Lee 2010, 73).²⁴ I gathered with queer activists earlier in the morning outside the Constitutional Court, chatting about the impending ruling and response, as they...