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Conservative Christians oppose Life Partnership Act amid fear of legalizing same-sex marriage
By Lee Hae-rin
A bill has been proposed that would grant civil union status to a more diverse range of relationships and provide people with a broader range of legal rights and protections, despite stiff opposition from conservative Christian groups in Korea.
Rep. Yong Hye-in of the minor opposition Basic Income Party and 10 other lawmakers from opposition parties proposed the Life Partnership Relations Act, which recognizes partnerships outside of blood relations and marriage as familial, April 26.
“The concept and shape of family is quickly changing in our society,” Yong said during a press conference at the National Assembly before proposing the legislation, April 26. “However, the current law and system fail to embrace diversity in the various forms of family that exist.”
The lawmaker noted that the proposed bill will include a wider range of groups of people living together as a family, such as the elderly, friends and unmarried couples, and provide them with rights in the areas of inheritance, adoption and housing matters, as well as providing other legal protections.
| Rep. Yong Hye-in of minor opposition Basic Income Party holds a press conference at the National Assembly, Seoul, Feb. 24. Newsis |
Rep. Ryu Ho-jeong of the minor opposition Justice Party, who co-proposed the legislation, underscored the need to legally recognize same-sex couples as families and provide them with health and welfare services, which are currently limited to relations of kinship and heterosexual married couples.
The lawmakers believe that the bill could help address the country's declining birth rate, citing examples from countries like Germany, Denmark and Sweden, which have higher birth rates and legally recognize more diverse forms of family.
Yong noted that these countries accept more diverse forms of family under their legal system and provide them with social benefits.
“In France, the establishment of the civil solidarity pact (PACS) in 1999, a contractual form of civil union between two adults for organizing their joint life, led to an increase in the birth rate from 1.76 to 1.98 per woman in 2007,” Ryu said.
According to a survey by the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family in 2020, 69.7 percent of Koreans believe those who share livelihoods and residence should be legally recognized as families, regardless of their marital or kinship status.
This is not the first time that Korean lawmakers have attempted to legislate a law embracing more diverse family arrangements. In 2014, then-Rep. Jin Sun-mee of the Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) proposed a similar initiative, but it did not materialize.
The proposed bill faced strong opposition from conservative groups, who argue that it would essentially legalize same-sex marriage and disrupt social order, back in 2014 as well as currently in 2023.
The National Assembly's online bill information system shows that over 5,600 comments have been uploaded to Yong's proposal, mostly by members of anti-equality conservative groups who claim that the legislation will “shake up the social order and dismantle families” and “encourage and privilege homosexuality.”
The proposed bill also sees little prospect of gaining support from the conservative ruling People Power Party (PPP), while the majority-holding main opposition DPK plans to support the bill only if it excludes same-sex unions, according to a recent report by KBS, reflecting Korea's predominantly conservative attitudes toward homosexuality.
Currently, Korea only recognizes civil unions of marriage, kinship and adoption as family under the 2004 Framework Act on Healthy Families, which has faced criticism for its narrow and discriminatory definition of families.
Although the gender ministry announced plans in 2021 to expand the concept of families to include unmarried couples and foster families, the initiative was stopped by the current Yoon Suk Yeol administration, which prioritizes "providing practical aid" rather than engaging in debates over the legal definition of family.