A sexual minority group at Seoul National University on Friday expressed support for a female candidate running for SNU student council president who recently revealed that she is homosexual.

Queer In SNU posted online and offline messages to support Kim Bo-mi, a 23-year-old student in the school’s department of child development and family studies, on publicly declaring that she is a lesbian. Kim had said she is coming out of the closet in hopes that “people can accept themselves for whoever they are, and live positively.”

“Her statement surprised all of us. We assume that people are not sexual minorities unless they say it out loud. To say one is gay takes courage to deny such an unspoken assumption,” the QIS said in its statement. It added that the group is not backing her campaign, but merely complimenting her on coming out of the closet.

Kim said that it is worth forfeiting her privacy for “a chance to change all our lives.”

“What I want the SNU to become is a society where an individual can exist as themselves, where all lives are beautiful just the way they are,” she said during her campaign Thursday.

Kim, who is the sole candidate for the university’s 58th student council president, is currently the vice president of the council and a member of a committee for the rights of student sexual minorities at SNU. She was also involved in the student movement to resolve a recent sexual violence case against an SNU professor.

If she wins, Kim will become the first public sexual minority to head the student council for the most prestigious university in Korea. As a sole candidate, she will be elected chief upon receiving 50 percent approval in the election, which will be held Nov. 16-19.



By Yoon Min-sik
(minsikyoon@heraldcorp.com)