Bain was midway via his band’s Los Angeles live performance on a crisp April night time when the music stopped.
In an outsized fur coat and black sun shades, the 24-year-old Okay-pop star informed 1000’s of followers: “Earlier than I begin the following tune – I wish to share one thing with you guys.”
A short pause after which: “I am [expletive] proud to be a part of the LGBTQ group!”
The group erupted in applause and screams as Bain broke into Girl Gaga’s satisfaction anthem: “Simply put your paws up, ‘Trigger you have been born this manner, child”.
In that second, as he got here out to the world, he was not nervous, he tells the BBC in an interview at his studio in Seoul – relatively, he had been making an attempt to “sound cool”.
A handful of Okay-pop artists have come out as homosexual in recent times – however none as publicly as Bain.
Even in 2025, that may be a daring transfer in South Korea’s leisure business, the place stars are held to inconceivable requirements. Admitting to even a heterosexual relationship is scandalous.
“There have been some folks within the business who knew [I was thinking of coming out] and warned me in opposition to it, saying it might be a threat,” Bain says. “And naturally I believed concerning the threat – that we would lose followers.
“However then I believed, society is altering… I would achieve greater than I would lose.”
That is the massive query: has he thrown open the door to vary in an business that has develop into world however stays deeply rooted in a conservative South Korea?
‘I believed I might simply faux’
Bain, whose actual identify is Track Byeonghee, says he was in secondary faculty, about 12 years previous, when he realised he was homosexual.
Shortly afterwards, he determined to develop into a Okay-pop trainee however he stored his sexuality a secret – he felt like being homosexual was “not allowed”.
“It wasn’t one thing I questioned… I simply thought I had no alternative,” he says. “There was no-one else [around me that was gay]. I believed I might simply faux and hold going.”
BBC Korean/Jungmin ChoiRich, fashionable South Korea remains to be conventional in some ways. Highly effective but conservative church buildings typically see homosexuality as a incapacity or sin. And same-sex marriage shouldn’t be legally recognised.
In 2021, Bain made his debut as a part of a six-member boyband, Simply B. They’ve launched a number of albums and have taken half in actuality exhibits, incomes a devoted viewers.
However via all of it, the years of hiding part of himself took a toll on Bain.
“I used to be so overwhelmed, I believed possibly I can not be an idol in any respect. I felt I might been hiding a lot. I made a decision to speak to Mother.”
That was about three years in the past. His mom was the primary individual in his household to seek out out: “We talked for an hour, and I lastly stated, ‘I like males greater than ladies.’ That is when she knew.”
Her response was tough for him. “Actually, she did not prefer it – not at first. She stated she thought I might overcome it, that possibly I might sometime like ladies. She felt unhappy… that I might now face unhealthy reactions from others. However [she] stated, ‘You are my son, so I really like you, I assist you, I really like you.’ It was blended. I used to be unhappy, however ultimately grateful she stated she loves me.”
Then his staff members and firm started encouraging him to take the leap – and inform the world.
Earlier this yr the band started a world tour, and on the final cease of their US tour, Bain determined to come back out on stage.
Getty PhotographsSince then, the band has been thrust into the highlight – with Bain giving numerous interviews as he rapidly turned the brand new face of the Korean LGBTQ group.
“I really feel like I’ve modified lots since popping out. I really feel extra assured. Once I meet somebody new, I present who I’m instantly,” he says. “However I additionally really feel unhappy that my id is such an enormous deal now.”
Over time, he hopes, folks will cease saying “oh, he is homosexual, however relatively, oh, that is simply who he’s”.
The taboos in Okay-pop
When South Korean actor Hong Seok-Cheon got here out as homosexual in 2000, LGBTQ illustration really entered the nation’s mainstream.
He was the primary Korean celeb to open up about his sexuality – and it got here at a value. He was dropped from TV exhibits and commercials.
Attitudes have definitely modified since then. A Pew survey from 2019 confirmed that the quantity of people that accepted homosexuality has risen to 44% from 25% in 2002.
And but, solely a handful of different celebrities have come out. In 2018, Holland turned the nation’s first overtly homosexual Okay-pop artist and, in 2020, Jiae, a former member of lady group Wassup, got here out as bisexual. Each have stated they discovered it exhausting to signal with a document label because of this.
Bain’s announcement, nonetheless, has been celebrated by each followers and South Korea’s LGBTQ group.
“When somebody like an idol comes out, it offers folks like me a way that we aren’t alone,” says a 26-year-old Korean transgender lady, who doesn’t wish to be named.
“It brings consolation…makes me assume, possibly I am okay the way in which I’m.”
On-line too, a majority of the feedback have been constructive. One homosexual fan in a YouTube remark wrote how he was inspired by Bain, after feeling “a lot despair” over “the hateful feedback” and discrimination.
“However because of Bain, I’ve discovered the braveness to maintain going.”
Getty PhotographsWorldwide followers have particularly cheered him on: “After the preliminary shock, I began to cry,” stated Lia, a Okay-pop fan from the US who identifies as lesbian.
“Figuring out that Korea nonetheless has some repression in opposition to LGBTQ folks, the bravery and braveness he displayed by popping out…[was] admirable.”
South Korea’s cultural footprint has been rising globally, and that has introduced followers from in every single place, with their very own views and beliefs. They might effectively reshape the Okay-pop business.
However that can take time. And that’s evident within the vary of feedback in response to Bain’s announcement – disapproval to apathy.
For one, the nation has seen an increase in right-wing, typically avowed anti-feminist beliefs in younger males, who appear to oppose any problem to conventional gender roles.
And people roles stay sturdy in South Korea. The federal government and the church champion standard household values, encouraging younger folks to marry and have kids to allow them to enhance start charges, presently the bottom on the planet.
Given all that, it will not be a shock that homosexuality remains to be a taboo, even in a world business like Okay-pop.
It is a world the place even straight {couples} do not speak about their personal lives, says critic Lim Hee-yun.
“Okay-pop has spent practically 25 years avoiding the subject of sexuality [altogether]. Even heterosexual relationships are hidden to guard fan fantasies.”
BBC Korean/Jungmin ChoiBain, he provides, has “challenged that silence in a symbolic and highly effective means. I imagine it marks a significant second”.
However he believes followers might have reacted very in another way – “it might need been explosive” – if a member of a world boyband had come out as homosexual.
“Bain’s case was vital, however his group is not as well-known [so] it did not trigger as a lot stir domestically,” Mr Lim says.
Bain has definitely helped increase consciousness, he agrees. “It is a gradual course of however we’re seeing extra public figures talking up or content material being created round these LGBTQ points.”
However any rapid change in Okay-pop or the leisure business is unlikely, in keeping with him.
“It isn’t only a social challenge – it is a market challenge. Male idols often have a a lot bigger feminine fanbase… [and] for those who discover out your favorite male idol is homosexual, that may shatter the phantasm that you may at some point be the item of his affection,” he says.
“So in the event that they do [come out] they threat shaking the inspiration their fandom is constructed on.”
Bain, nonetheless, says his resolution could be value it if even “one individual in Okay-pop good points energy or curiosity” from it.
“I’ve spent so lengthy pretending… I realised that as a result of I got here out, others felt secure to take action too.”
The day he got here out, he remembers, a number of followers approached him, saying they have been homosexual or lesbian, speaking about their very own id.
“They thanked me and I believed to myself ‘I ought to have carried out this sooner’.”
