Merry Queer
Storyline
The whole story, ending included.
Queer couples come out to their families on camera in a country with no marriage equality.
Merry Queer is a Wavve reality series, billed as Korea's first 'real coming-out romance', that follows queer couples as they try to live their relationships openly and work towards marriage. Nine episodes were released between 8 July and 26 August 2022. Three couples take part, each already known from a YouTube channel of their own. Kim Min-jun and Park Bo-seong, together for 590 days and followed by 1.72 million subscribers, open up their everyday life and attempt to file a marriage registration. Im Ga-ram and Lee Seung-eun, two years into their relationship and living together, prepare a small outdoor wedding. Tae-on and Lee Min-ju, both office workers, have been a couple for two years and have lived together for four months; Tae-on has decided to have surgery in order to change his legal gender from female to male, and carries on brightly through the discrimination and prejudice he meets.
The couples' stories turn on coming out, to parents, to friends or to the public, and on what a shared future can look like. In the eighth episode Tae-on has surgery, which Korean courts still weigh heavily in deciding a change of legal gender, with Min-ju supporting him. The last episode gives each couple its ending. Bo-seong and Min-jun travel by way of New York to Los Angeles, where they hold a wedding of their own and register their marriage. Tae-on adopts his new name and begins the legal process of changing his gender. Ga-ram and Seung-eun, who have decided to become engaged before they marry, hold a formal engagement ceremony with their friends.
Three hosts present the series and cheer the couples on: the comedian and presenter Shin Dong-yup, known for shows about love, marriage and divorce; the actor Hong Seok-cheon, who in 2000 became the first Korean entertainer to come out publicly; and Hani of the girl group EXID. Wavve launched the series the same summer as His Man, its dating show for gay men.
Starring
Shin Dong-yupHost
A veteran comedian and presenter, known for shows about love, marriage and divorce, who leads the hosting trio.
Hong Seok-cheonHost
An actor who in 2000 became the first Korean entertainer to come out, and co-presents the series.
HaniHost
A singer and actor from the girl group EXID, who co-presents and cheers the couples on.
Why it matters
Merry Queer put on a mainstream Korean streaming service, by its own account for the first time, queer couples talking about coming out and about marriage, with the first openly gay Korean entertainer among its hosts. Its three couples carry three questions queer Koreans live with: whether a marriage can be registered, what a wedding means without legal recognition, and what it costs to change one's legal gender. Hong Seok-cheon's presence gives the format its history; he came out in 2000 and, two decades later, sits beside couples facing some of the same conversations. After its first episode it ranked fourth among the titles new Wavve subscribers watched first. Its limits are those of its genre, since reality television needs drama and draws it from lives that carry real risk once they are public. What it leaves open is what it costs a couple to be the first people many viewers have heard say these things aloud.