Hong Seok-cheon

Hong Seok‑cheon is a South Korean actor, TV personality, and restaurateur who is widely recognized as the first major Korean celebrity to come out as gay, doing so in 2000 at a time when LGBTQ+ visibility in South Korea was nearly nonexistent. The backlash was immediate and severe — he was fired from his children’s TV show, blacklisted from major networks, and forced into years of professional exile — but his eventual return to television in the mid‑2000s made him a symbol of resilience and a pioneer of queer representation in Korean media. Hong has since become a beloved cultural figure, known for his candor, humor, and outspoken advocacy for LGBTQ+ rights. His Itaewon restaurants became informal queer community hubs, and his appearances on variety shows, dramas, and talk programs helped normalize queer visibility for mainstream audiences. Today, Hong is regarded as a foundational figure in modern Korean LGBTQ+ history, having paved the way for a new generation of queer artists and public figures.