Hong Seok Cheon Sympathizes With the LGBT Community as He Urges Itaewon Clubgoers to Get Tested for COVID-19

In light of the recent outbreak of COVID-19 in Itaewon clubs, Hong Seok Cheon, one of the few LGBT representatives on Korean TV, was put into the spotlight due to the fact that the clubs were known to be popular among the LGBT community.

Not long after he was wrongly criticized by netizens for staying silent on the issue, the celebrity spoke on through his Instagram account.

Now is the time to be courageous. That’s because for the LGBT community, revealing their identity to family, friends, and society is a scary thing. So courage is needed. As someone who’s been in Itaewon for a long time, I find this incident quite unfortunate and worrying, but what worries me the most is the fact that many people won’t respond to calls to be tested.

Of course, I know better than anyone that it’s out of worry of being “outed.” But right now, the health of your family and our society comes first. Since they say it’s possible to get tested anonymously, please do so right away.

This time is hard for everyone. And everyone is working hard together to get out of this. Please have the courage to get tested so that the efforts of the health authorities, medical professionals, and the citizens don’t go to waste.

– Hong Seok Cheon

Prior to this post, Hong Seok Cheon was criticized for not speaking out the way he did when the massive spread of COVID-19 took place due to a church known as Shincheonji.

A man recently tested for COVID-19 after visiting 5 Itaewon clubs, and with many of the visitors being a part of the LGBT community, a high number of visitors are refusing to answer calls from the health authorities to get tested, raising the worry of another wave of COVID-19 in Korea.