The 1st Daejeon Queer Culture Festival Organizing Committee Launched... "The Festival is Inevitable"

"A festival that is a movement resisting discrimination and signaling that existence cannot be erased"

On the morning of the 14th, a press conference was held in front of the north gate of Daejeon City Hall to launch the organizing committee for the 1st Daejeon Queer Culture Festival. / Daejeon=Photo by Park Jong-myeong

An organizing committee has been launched to hold the first Queer Culture Festival in Daejeon.

The 1st Daejeon Queer Culture Festival Organizing Committee, consisting of 18 civic groups including the Daejeon LGBTQ Parents Association and the Daejeon Participatory Citizenship Solidarity, held a press conference for the committee's launch on the morning of the 14th in front of the north gate of Daejeon City Hall.

In the press statement, the committee emphasized, "Sexual minorities still face discrimination, and although holding a peaceful festival is a citizen's right, we have to fight for it," adding, "The Queer Culture Festival is a movement resisting discrimination and a festival that declares our existence cannot be erased."

They continued, "It is inevitable that the Queer Culture Festival is held in Daejeon," noting, "Daejeon ranks fifth in population nationwide but is almost the only metropolitan city where a Queer Culture Festival has never been held."

Furthermore, they stated, "We will do our best so that all queers in Daejeon can live freely and openly without hiding themselves, and so that Daejeon can become a city of love and diversity rather than a city of hatred and uniformity."

The committee is reportedly planning to expand the co-hosting organizations and hold the festival in the second half of the year.