A Korean feminist and writer is facing a heavy fine after she tricked some anti-gay Christians into donating to an LGBTQ charity.
Eun Ha-sun was shocked when she was recently fined 3 million won ($1700). She wasn’t shocked by the very fact that she was fined at all. Rather, she was shocked by the large sum as she’d only raised about 440,000 won ($390) through her scheme.
It all started when Eun Ha-sun appeared as a panelist on the Korean show called Candid Men & Women. After the series aired two LGBTQ episodes in late December of last year and early January of this year, the show gained heavy criticism from conservative Christians.
As Eun told the Korean Herald, the show’s Facebook page got hit with several anti-gay messages and complaints. Seeing all of this, she decided it was time to strike back.
Eun published on Facebook a post that read:
“Dear children of God who oppose homosexuality. The producer’s contact number of ‘Candid Men and Women’ has been changed. Make sure to text to this number: #2540-6550.”
While 90 people thought that they were messaging a producer of the show to complain, what they were really doing was donating 3,000 won ($2.60) to the Seoul Queer Culture Festival (which was noticeably hounded by Christian protestors this year).
Unfortunately for Eun, the situation backfired on her as some months later she was sent to court. Eun was then fined 2 million won, which is again way more than the $390 she raised.
Eun Ha-sun has now left her position on the show, but she is also hoping to overturn the initial court ruling.
Eun also shared that she has tried to sympathize with the 90 people she tricked, despite her trick being fairly obvious.
“It wouldn’t make sense for someone who had been on the show for a year to share a producer’s personal phone number or encourage people to text complaints,” she said before adding, “If you searched the number on either Naver or Google, you would have known that it was the donation number for the Seoul Queer Culture Festival.”
She also added:
“I know it would have been unpleasant to find out that you had donated for a cause you don’t want to support."
Eun Ha-sun later shared a way to get a refund though social media, but says no one took her up on the offer.
The controversy hasn’t ended here though, as one religious group says it is now looking into filing a civil suit against Eun for the original post.
h/t: The Korean Herald
