The stories of South Korean religious lesbians : the voices of the women struggling with ceaseless conflicts

Abstract

I explore how Korean religions affect South Korean lesbians’ identities and lives by capturing the perspectives of Korean lesbians who are Presbyterian, Catholic and Buddhist through this study. This study aims to raise awareness of conflicts caused by the religions through testimonies provided in the lesbians’ own voices and to find ways to unravel the conflicts and improve relationships at the intersection of lesbian identity, religion, family, and members of South Korean society. Therefore, this research centers on the first-person accounts and stories of religious Korean lesbians. Six South Korean religious lesbians were interviewed, and the women’s stories were reconstructed as autobiographic narratives based on feminist standpoint theory to consider the importance of understanding each woman’s self-perception as a religious lesbian in South Korea.