SEOUL – A lawsuit filed by a prominent gay film director and his partner seeking legal status for their same-sex marriage was rejected by a South Korean district court on Wednesday in the first case of its kind.
Movie director Kim Jho Gwang-Soo and his long-time partner Kim Seung-Hwan, held a wedding ceremony in Seoul in September 2013 and submitted their marriage registration form to their local authority – only for it to be rejected.
While homosexuality is not illegal in South Korea, same-sex marriage is not recognised and the country remains deeply conservative about matters of sexual identity.
The couple challenged the decision with a lawsuit filed in July last year, but the ruling on Wednesday sided with the local authority.
“Circumstances have changed concerning marriage … but unless there is separate legislation, a same sex union cannot be recognised as marriage under the existing legal system”, the Seoul western district court said in a statement.
“Related laws, including the constitution and civil law, are premised on the notion of a conjugal bond meaning a union involving different sexes,” it said.
The two Kims are the most high-profile gay couple in South Korea and the lawsuit they filed over their marriage licence was the first of its kind.
“We regret the court decision … but we did see it coming,” Kim Seung-Hwan told AFP, adding that the couple intended to appeal the ruling.
The couple’s lawyer Ryu Min-Hee said the lawsuit had argued that civil law should be viewed through a “gender-neutral” prism that upheld equal rights provisions in the constitution.
“When in doubt, all laws should be interpreted in a constitutional way,” she said.
“We’re disappointed but we’re not done yet,” she added.
Ryu’s legal team had always acknowledged that the likelihood of a district court judge declaring same-sex marriage legal was extremely slim.
Gay and transgender South Koreans live largely under the radar in a country where many still regard homosexuality as a foreign phenomenon.
But gay rights campaigners were buoyed by the US Supreme Court ruling in June last year that made same-sex marriage legal throughout the United States.
