Love is in the air~
Edit: Evidently these photos were taken by the South Korean army across the DMZ. There was some sort of kerfuffle about this in South Korean media because homosexuality is forbidden and punished with jail time in the South Korean military, but it's totally permitted in the DPRK.
From what it looks like North Korea has a similar attitude to the LGBTQ community as Russia (which claims to be "neutral" on gay rights). I think the major difference is in Russia anti-gay propaganda is pushed while in North Korea gay people aren't discussed much at all. But in the DPRK there's:
no gay marriage/adoption or any recognition of same-sex couples at all
no legal recognition of trans identities
no anti-discrimination laws for LGBTQ people in general
LGBTQ censorship (a lot of North Koreans are unaware non-straight people exist)
also, NK's policy on gay people in the military is very similar to Don't Ask Don't Tell in that you have to keep your sexuality private it seems like.
Can any DPRK nerds confirm or deny this? I have too many layers of lib propaganda in my brain to tell what's real or not.
Where do you get this information?
US state department, Radio Free Asia and Wikipedia
I don't think it's appropriate to place the DPRK in the same category as Russia and to ignore material factors over formal legal protections that can be difficult to make use of.
That said, given the experience with the USSR I'm sure North Korea could do better.
Another thing with North Korea is it's likely more difficult to get accurate information on it than any other country, so there's a lot of grey area, but from what I've gathered there's definitely still a good amount of prejudice. I kind of agree with you but then again in Russia LGBTQ people at least have platforms like the global internet to have a community and learn about themselves, whereas LGBTQ North Koreans probably feel even more invisible and confused, despite there probably being less prejudice (probably due to sexuality not really being discussed much at all).
No anti-discrimination laws? What the hell are you talking about?
There's anti-discrimination for race, gender, etc, but no mention of sexual orientation
The North Korean constitution only mentions "sex, race, occupation, length of residence, property status, education, party affiliation, political views or religion." Also, upon more research North Korean media has also attacked western figures for their sexuality which is telling on the general negative attitudes there.
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There are protections enshrined in law against discrimination of any kind, that protect all workers
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https://www.constituteproject.org/constitution/Peoples_Republic_of_Korea_1998.pdf
Chapter 5
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What? It's literally right there:
I mean they could add it, that would be fine, but I don’t think there’s any serious repression going on in DPRK besides a general cultural tone, which is hard (if not impossible) for the state to correct immediately.
Well I like their enthusiasm.
MAXIMMMUUUUM SOCIALISSSMMMMM