The Women Behind Seoul's Secret Lesbian Bars

Seoul - South Korea. I went looking for Yoon Kim Myung-woo, who has run Lesvos, South Korea's first lesbian bar, since 1996. She was the first person in Korea to come out publicly in the media, and she is a queer rights activist and a drag king theatre actor who has kept that bar open through stigma, police raids and a pandemic. There is a documentary about her, ;Home Ground', which is the first film to archive the history of Korean lesbian spaces at all.

Then I found a red neon sign on a roof, climbed the outside stairs, and went through a door saying members only. That is Horn Seoul, nine months old, run by Jang.

Running a lesbian bar in South Korea means no name on the map app, no way to tell people you exist. Customers cannot risk being seen walking in. So you build something almost nobody can find, in a country with no anti-discrimination law and no same sex marriage, and you try to keep it alive anyway.

Somehow I talked Jang and three of her friends into coming up to the roof with me to talk about it. Women who had known me an hour, handing that much trust to a stranger with a phone.

One phone, five people, two languages, one translator. It is messy but in the best way. I kept some of the the Korean in and left the mess where it was, because that is what it actually sounded like.

They talk about gaydar in a country where everyone holds hands, their sheer lack of rights, and why lesbians in Seoul go to the familiar place instead of the fancy one.

Lesvos and Horn are a five minute walk apart in Hongdae.

Horn Seoul - www.instagram.com/horn_seoul

Lesvos Bar - www.instagram.com/lesvos_sangsu/

Jang Salon - www.instagram.com/jangsalon2011

JangSalon Reserve (Wine Bar) www.instagram.com/jangsalon_reserve

Rangrarii Korean Webtoon Illustrations

www.instagram.com/rangrarii