A South Korea court has recognized the rights of same-sex couples for the first time, in a promising move forward.
So Seong Wook and Kim Yongmin held a marriage ceremony for themselves in 2019, but South Korea does not officially recognize same-sex marriage. Kim Yongmin applied to include his partner on his plan with the National Health Insurance Service. Mistakenly, he was approved coverage, but as soon as the NHIS realized both partners were male, Mr. So’s coverage was revoked.
In 2021, the couple filed a lawsuit to have that coverage returned. There have been several delays and appeals in the civil suit, and a lower court found that the NHIS did not owe coverage. But this week, the Seoul High Court found for the two men. The South Korea court ruled that the government health insurance did owe coverage to Mr. So, as the spouse of a customer regardless of the legal definition of their marriage.
Celebrating the ruling, Mr So praised the court for seeing “the principle of equality as an important issue”.
“I think it has a great meaning for LGBTQ people who have been in a discriminatory situation, those who support them and all those who are discriminated against,” he told the BBC.
The South Korea court also found that denying same-sex couples such benefits amounted to discrimination.
“Everyone can be a minority in some way. To be in the minority is to be different from the majority and cannot be wrong itself,” the court judgment read.
“In a society dominated by the principle of majority rule, awareness of the rights of minorities and efforts to protect them are necessary.”
The NHIS will challenge the verdict once more in Supreme Court, but that a high court has found for the couple is already a major achievement. After Tuesday’s court ruling, Amnesty International released a statement saying: “There is still a long way to go to end discrimination against the LGBTI community, but this ruling offers hope that prejudice can be overcome.”
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