South Korea’s presidential election fuels a row about gay rights

“IT IS 2017. Moon Jae-in just opposed homosexuality,” thundered the headline of a newspaper following a live television debate among South Korea’s presidential candidates. Gay sex is legal in South Korea, but stigmatised. Mr Moon, a former human-rights lawyer and the liberal candidate, who leads the polling for the election on May 9th, had just confirmed that he disapproved of it.

Mr Moon’s statement caused a stir on social media, but his view is not that unusual. Of the five main presidential candidates, only Shim Sang-jung of the Justice Party, the only woman running, has expressed support for gay rights. A decade ago a bill outlawing discrimination on various grounds foundered because sexual orientation was one of them. MPs have blocked it twice more since then. Last week representatives of Mr Moon and three rivals attended a “Protestant Public Policy Forum”; all made statements against gay rights, in keeping with the stance of many of South Korea’s influential churches.