In 2000,
Suk Hong, a popular television actor and comedian, became the first well-known figure in South Korea to state publicly that he is gay. His declaration introduced the concept of coming out to a society that until then did not even acknowledge the existence of homosexuality and regarded it as a foreign disease.
Suk Hong was dropped from his television roles. As an actor, his career seemed through. But in yet another sign of the rapid social transformations that the South Korea is undergoing, Suk Hong has since made a big comeback.