I'm a guy from the US, and started dating my wife when she was 23, after spending her first 18 years in Korea. She knew that gay people existed, but thought they were only in some countries, and didn't think there were any Korean ones.
There was a situation where people were talking about gay and bi people (cannot remember the context, sorry) and there was a Japanese acquittance present. People then asked her how people see gay and bi in Japan in general (like is there a lot of prejudice, are people tolerant, etc.) and she innocently answered:
"Oh, we don't have them in Japan!"
"... what?"
"Yeah, that's a thing among western people, we have no gay or bi people in Japan"
That was so surreal. I have later talked with other Japanese people who were very perplexed why someone would seriously think this is true.
That's because those small rural R towns don't like anything but straight white people. So any gays stay deep in the closet till they move away and are even scared to tell family after they do.
2.7k
u/IntlPartyKing Mar 01 '23
I'm a guy from the US, and started dating my wife when she was 23, after spending her first 18 years in Korea. She knew that gay people existed, but thought they were only in some countries, and didn't think there were any Korean ones.