12·3 탄핵 광장과 퀴어 가시성

초록

This study analyzes the significance of queer visibility in the impeachment rallies following the December 3 martial law declaration. Specifically, it explores under what conditions and through what processes the demands of sexual and gender minorities, which were deferred to “later” during the 2016-2017 candlelight protests, were able to enter the center of the public square, and examines the meaning of such changes in the context of a democratic crisis. To this end, participant observation of impeachment rallies and in-depth interviews with 35 rally participants were conducted over approximately four months from December 2024 to April 2025. The research findings reveal that the expansion of queer visibility resulted from the combination of the condition of “intense times” and the accumulated capacity of civil society over eight years. In particular, the Nam Tae-ryeong protest proved to be an eventful protest that disseminated a new cognitive framework of “democracy that excludes no one” and transformed the grammar of the square and practices of solidarity. Subsequently, queer visibility became established as a symbol of intersectional solidarity, forming a chain of equivalence for the radicalization of democracy, though tensions within the square regarding political priorities and representation persisted. In other words, the expansion of queer visibility signifies political challenge and solidarity that goes beyond the issue of identity recognition to challenge the heteronormative premises of citizenship and reconfigure the boundaries of democracy.

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