Boseok (Kim Boseok), a Korean Deaf LGBT+ activist and sign-language interpreter, passed away on the 17th. While on a trip to Japan, Boseok died of sudden cardiac arrest. Boseok was 37.

In response to Boseok’s death, numerous human rights groups and individuals in South Korea issued statements of condolence. “A person who fought against discrimination and exclusion of Deaf people, and the stigma and hate toward sexual minorities within the Deaf community, connecting those who had been far apart as colleagues”(Seoul Human Rights Film Festival), and “a person who, true to the name, always sparkled, was warm, and lived a life that shone more than anyone else”(Park Jinhwa).

This is a profile photo of Boseok retouched by Haein, a colleague in Korean Deaf LGBT+. Haein grieved, saying it ended up becoming a funeral portrait. Courtesy of Haein

Boseok was born in Incheon on December 11, 1989. A CODA (children of Deaf adults). In Issue 204 of Theatre in (July 15, 2021), in a feature where a theater person meets a person, Boseok’s childhood story appears. Growing up, Boseok did not have deep conversations with the parents. Sign language was not learned separately either. The talks were said to be little more than about allowance and meals.

In the early twenties, during a period of drifting, Boseok became active in the church’s Deaf ministry. There, Boseok also learned that Nazarene University has a department of sign language interpretation studies. The parents, who “lived believing that diligently working at a factory and receiving a paycheck was the best choice,” opposed Boseok studying sign language at a university. Defying that opposition, in 2010 Boseok entered the department of sign language interpretation studies. While learning sign language, Boseok came to have a ‘CODA identity.’ “Until then, to me, my parents were simply people with whom conversation did not work. But (as I learned sign language) I finally came to converse with my parents, and the parts and behaviors that had felt stifling when looking at my parents began to be understood in the context of Deaf parents.”

Through sign language, Boseok began to understand the parents and other Deaf people more. The scope of understanding and solidarity toward the world and people widened. Boseok studied hard. In the first undergraduate year, Boseok obtained the sign-language interpreter certification. Boseok immediately began working as a sign-language interpreter. In 2022, Boseok also completed the doctoral coursework in rehabilitation studies (sign linguistics) at Nazarene University.

Boseok signs Korean Deaf LGBT+’s statement ‘Ahn Chang-ho, who agitates against human rights, must resign immediately!’ This video was posted on December 10 last year, 38 days before Boseok’s death. Screenshot from Korean Deaf LGBT+ YouTube

With a dream of becoming a Japanese language teacher, Boseok was fluent in Japanese and Japanese Sign Language. American Sign Language was also, in Boseok’s words, “good enough not to be out of place anywhere.” When working as an interpreter, Boseok always thought of conveying between people who use different languages. That is, conveying spoken Korean to ‘people who use Korean Sign Language’ rather than to ‘people who cannot hear,’ and conveying Korean Sign Language to people who use spoken Korean.

Although satisfied with sign interpreting work, at times it was difficult. Interpreting the experiences of Deaf people, who constantly face discrimination, could be emotionally bruising and stressful.

Boseok was a ‘CODA,’ a ‘sign-language researcher,’ and a ‘sexual minority.’ As a child, Boseok never agonized over sexual orientation as a homosexual. “I did not go out of my way to broadcast it, but if someone asked, I never denied it.” In college, a wall was hit. In the Theatre in interview, Boseok said, “Because of hardship, I clung to scholarships, got along with professors, and studied hard, which seems to have annoyed friends around me, and it ended up with, ‘because you are gay….’ That time was hard. Ah, so I must hide it…. That was the first time I thought so.”

Boseok was both a CODA and a sexual minority. After learning sign language, Boseok fought against homophobia and discrimination targeting Deaf sexual minorities. Boseok was always an activist who pondered alternatives. Photo taken during a Kyunghyang Shinmun interview in April 2021. Photo by Kang Yoon-jung

Boseok suffered from layered discrimination and prejudice. In an April 2021 interview with the Kyunghyang Shinmun, Boseok said, “Society already sees Deaf families as ‘defective.’ If I say I am a sexual minority, people can say, ‘you turned out that way because your family is defective.’ Because of my identity as a ‘gay, CODA, sign-language researcher,’ situations that make me passive or keep me from stepping forward repeat. When I feel walls from both the hearing society and the Deaf community, it is excruciating. I am scared when I think, ‘what if my parents are rejected because of me.’”

Boseok did not yield to fear. With the “synergy that arises when CODA identity and sexual-minority identity meet,” Boseok put many things into practice one by one. A flagship effort was creating alternative sign language with colleagues.

Deaf sexual minorities, when expressing their identities in Korean Sign Language, had to engage in self-loathing. For example, the signs for lesbian and gay each depict specific sexual acts. Gay is “a person who has anal sex,” and lesbian is “a person who rubs bodies.” Deaf viewers also come to understand sexual minorities through that hateful, discriminatory language. Where ‘male homosexual’ could be rendered as ‘a man who loves men,’ signs of ‘bodily coupling’ were used.

Korean Deaf LGBT+ activists pose for a commemorative photo during the event ‘Cut off hate and retie your shoelaces’ held at the Human Rights Foundation Sarang on September 24 last year. From left: activists Jinyoung, Haein, Jiyang, and Boseok. Boseok took part as an interpreter that day. Courtesy of Haein

The colleague who first wrestled with this issue was the activist Jiyang (Woo Jiyang). When Jiyang proposed, “Let us create new language that is not discriminatory toward sexual minorities,” Boseok joined immediately. In 2021, Boseok, Jiyang, Taehwan, and Lego directly developed alternative signs that contain no discrimination or hate toward sexual minorities, that is, signs that ‘recognize and respect diverse identities.’ For lesbian and gay, for instance, they kept the original meaning of sexual orientation as ‘attraction.’ They published <Deaf Sexual Minorities X Korean Sign Language: Language of respect and affirmation, stripped of prejudice and hate>, which compiled the alternative signs. They even made videos. Regarding the publication and video production, Boseok said, “What we made is not at the level of ‘It feels bad to call us this way. Please do not do this,’ but a message of ‘Please call us precisely like this!’”

The activists, including Boseok, actively informed sign-language interpreters that sexual-minority-related signs are hate speech. They continuously raised this issue with the National Institute of Korean Language. In May 2025, they secured a commitment from the National Institute of Korean Language to conduct research in 2026 on expressions of hate and discrimination within Korean Sign Language, and to list sexual-minority sign expressions in the Korean Sign Language Nuri Dictionary in 2027. The institute also said that, including expressions proposed by Korean Deaf LGBT+, it would review and prepare alternative signs, and that once those are established, it would use them at official events.

In 2021, they formed the Korean Deaf LGBT Preparatory Committee. Boseok said, “I hope there will be a place where Deaf sexual minorities can interact safely. Korean Deaf LGBT+ wants to play that role.”

They did not stop at being a ‘space for exchange.’ They steadily ran programs for Deaf sexual minorities. When hate against sexual minorities flared during the COVID-19 period, they built an emergency contact network for Deaf sexual minorities. They opened open studies that both Deaf and hearing sexual minorities joined to share experiences of hate and discrimination. At one time, Deaf sexual minorities were unfamiliar even within sexual-minority groups. Boseok said this: “Even sexual-minority groups, when told Deaf participants are coming to an event, no longer babble in confusion but contact us. They say sign-language interpretation is needed for Deaf accessibility. It seems such awareness and atmosphere have formed. It seems we have become a presence that is a little less unfamiliar.”

Boseok was a passionate activist. Whether human-rights group education programs or campaigns, Boseok sought out places that needed them and places they needed to go. Boseok was an artist. At performances, screenings, and readings across theater, film, music, and literature, Boseok presented expressive, vivid sign language. At many venues, together with teammates, Boseok worked to designate seats first that are easy for wheelchair users to access or that provide a clear view of sign-language interpreting.

The political stance was also clear. Korean Deaf LGBT+ criticized Yoon Suk-yeol’s martial law and called for the resignation of National Human Rights Commission Chair Ahn Chang-ho. They consistently urged the political sphere to enact a comprehensive anti-discrimination law.

The death of an activist in the mid-thirties left many in grief. Haein, a Korean Deaf LGBT+ activist and colleague of Boseok, first met Boseok at a briefing on a fact-finding survey of Deaf sexual minorities on May 24, 2024. The following year, at Boseok’s suggestion, Haein began full-time work. While caregiving for parents, Haein also worked there. They were the only two full-time staff. They worked and studied together for ten months. The two promised to study Deaf sexual minorities together in graduate school. Haein mourned, saying, “The profile photo Boseok asked me to retouch became a funeral portrait.” Haein expressed thanks: “Thanks to Boseok, I learned alternative signs before hate-laden signs. For my own identity, as a non-binary androphile, I at least did not have to express it with hateful signs.”

Even at a young age in the thirties, Boseok seems to have reflected on death as an existential question. It is said that Boseok hoped “my funeral would be a party for everyone to enjoy together rather than full of sorrow and tears.” The funeral was held from the 24th to the 26th at Incheon Seongmo Funeral Home. Haein said, “It showed how hard you worked; the funeral hall was packed with activists and citizens who had watched your work.”

The remains of Boseok were enshrined at a Christian memorial facility. The deceased was a Protestant.

Haein and colleagues placed, next to Boseok in the columbarium, the booklets <Deaf Sexual Minorities × Korean Sign Language> and <Korean Sign Language of Vulgar People>, along with a rainbow flag and a Korean Deaf LGBT+ badge. Regarding these items, akin to mementos of Boseok, Haein said, “I came to think that the death of a queer person, and the death of an activist, means one is still engaging in social movement even after death.”