'Queer Festival Opposition' Public Officials Lose Final Appeal in Administrative Recommendation Cancellation Lawsuit

At the Seoul Queer Culture Festival held at Seoul Plaza on the 16th, Philip Goldberg, the U.S. Ambassador to Korea (left), stood on stage with ambassadors to Korea from the European Union (EU), the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Denmark, Germany, Sweden, Ireland, the United Kingdom, Canada, Finland, and Australia, showing solidarity with the participants.
[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Daehyun] The administrative lawsuit filed by public officials who opposed the Queer Culture Festival (LGBTQ+ rights festival) held at Seoul Plaza, requesting the cancellation of the Seoul Metropolitan Government's corrective recommendation decision, has been definitively dismissed.

According to the court on the 27th, the Supreme Court Special Division 1 upheld the lower court's ruling dismissing the appeal in the case where about 10 Seoul city officials belonging to a Protestant group filed a lawsuit against the Mayor of Seoul and others to cancel the decision of the Citizens' Human Rights Violation Relief Committee. Summary dismissal is a system where an appeal is dismissed without substantive review if there is no significant violation of law or other special reasons in the lower court's decision.

Earlier, public officials including Mr. A issued a statement opposing the Queer Culture Festival held at Seoul Plaza on May 7, 2019. They stated that they opposed not because it was an event for sexual minorities, but because it was an obscene event, arguing that permission to use the plaza should not be granted.

In response to the officials' statement, a Seoul citizen filed a relief request with the Seoul Human Rights Department, claiming "discrimination against sexual minorities," and the committee accepted this issue. The committee judged that the officials arbitrarily assessed the obscenity and degeneracy of the event without grounds solely because the festival's main participants were sexual minorities, using expressions that could lead to discrimination and hatred against the sexual minority group.

The committee recommended the Mayor of Seoul to establish a hate response system to prevent hate speech against sexual minorities and other socially vulnerable groups in the performance of public duties by Seoul city officials. It also recommended revising the "Seoul Metropolitan Government Public Officials Service Ordinance" to include provisions prohibiting discriminatory and hateful expressions. Mr. A and others filed an administrative lawsuit seeking to cancel the committee's decision.

The first trial court dismissed the case, stating, "The corrective recommendations in this case cannot be considered administrative dispositions subject to an appeal lawsuit." Dismissal means terminating the case without substantive judgment due to lack of procedural requirements. The court added, "The committee, which is merely an internal organization of Seoul city, made corrective recommendations to the mayor as an internal administrative matter of Seoul city, which cannot be considered an act directly affecting the rights and obligations of the public externally."

The appellate court also agreed with this judgment. The second trial court stated, "The corrective recommendation in this case is merely a recommendation for institutional improvement, and even if it contains evaluations of the plaintiffs' actions, it is only the mayor's internal policy review and decision-making process to ascertain and evaluate facts," and declared "all are inadmissible lawsuits." The request to issue the decision documents posted on the Seoul city website was also rejected, stating, "They do not contain identifiable personal information and were published from the perspective of promoting public human rights awareness or the right to know."