A religious group that openly promotes gay conversion therapy will stage an anti-LGBT event just hundreds of meters away from where the Pride event is scheduled to take place on July 14 in Seoul.

The festival entitled “Better than Queer” will go ahead on the same day as this year’s Seoul Pride event, featuring a host of anti-LGBT speakers including pastors and people who say they were previously gay but are not anymore.

Holylife, the religious group that organizes what it calls a “holy festival,” will counter Pride for the fifth time this year, with the backing of 30 other religious groups, mainly Christian.

One of the keynote speakers is activist Lee Yo-na, who had lived as a gay man for 43 years and ran a gay bar before turning straight. Lee also wrote a book called “Coming Out Again,” which includes a chapter dedicated to coming out of being gay.

Darrion Skinner, who heads the US-based pro-conversion group “Here’s My Heart,” will also speak at both Better than Queer and the Story of Overcoming Same-sex Attraction, another event which will be held at Seoul National University on Monday.

The group offers gay therapy courses based on religious teaching. According to its official website, one of its educational programs Biblical Counseling Self-Confrontation School offers to treat anger, fear, depression, addition as well as homosexuality.

By Yim Hyun-su (hyunsu@heraldcorp.com)