For many years, Super Junior’s Kim Heechul had to contend with rumours that he was gay but he never once cleared it up until a week ago.
On the April 13 episode of 7.7 Billion in Love, the hosts and panel discussed the situation for sexual minorities in different countries around the world and Kim Heechul brought up about his own experience in dealing with rumours.
“Those who know are already aware of this, but since my debut there have been endless rumors that I was gay,” Kim Heechul said.
“I’ve had ‘scandals’ with male celebrities too. There were a lot of rumors about me being gay because ever since my debut, I had long hair and wore colored lenses.”
“At first, I wanted to deny it and say that I’m not homosexual,” he continued. “However, I felt that if I did, I could be disrespecting sexual minorities.”
“Whether it’s abroad or in Korea, there could be a gay person among the male fans at our concerts, and I think I’d feel really sorry towards them,” he said.
One of South Korea’s only openly gay celebrities, Hong Suk Chun shared that while things have gotten better in Korea, there is still a lot of discrimination.
“I hope that there will no longer be stereotypes or prejudice like that,” said Hong Suk Chun. “If people no longer feel fear about things they don’t know about, then we’ll be more free to accept each other.”
