South Korea approves creating a trans rights foundation after two-year row

South Korea has approved the creation of a foundation designed to protect transgender people from discrimination after nearly two years of deliberation.

Organisers have been given the go ahead to create the Byun Huisu Foundation, a non-profit which will work to protect trans South Koreans from political and societal transphobia.

What was originally supposed to be a 20-day deliberation turned into a two-year debacle after an application to create the foundation was submitted in May 2024.

The decision was repeatedly delayed over opposition from a conservative member of South Korea’s human rights regulator, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRCK), who routinely voted against fellow members of the watchdog’s standing commissioners.

In response, the foundation’s organising members sued the NHRCK, compelling the Seoul Administrative Court to prevent members from delaying the decision further. A decision held in December last year found that the delays were illegal.

Lee Sook-jin, one of the watchdog’s standing commissioners, apologised on behalf of the NHRCK, telling South Korean outlet Yonhap News that a “certain member’s continued opposition” had unreasonably delayed the foundation’s creation.

The conservative commissioner reportedly resigned as a result of the ruling and the foundation’s subsequent creation.

The Byun Huisu Foundation is named after trans South Korean Byun Hee-Soo, who took her own life in 2021 after she was discharged from the military for undergoing gender reassignment surgery.

The tank gunner filed a lawsuit challenging the dismissal a year prior, but took her own life before a judgment was made. Her family vowed to continue legal action against the government.

Committee members for the newly-created non-profit said it planned to fight for the procurement of LGBTQ+ rights in the East Asian country and would compel the government to recognise the dignity and rights of all transgender people.

Equaldex, a community-driven LGBTQ+ rights index, has scored South Korea a 46/100 in its equality index, with a score of 53/100 for legal rights and 39/100 for public opinion.

While legally changing gender is legal in the country, gender-affirming care is heavily restricted. Same-sex marriage also remains illegal.

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