Following his recent live, Super Junior Leeteuk became the talk of the town among the LGBTQ+ and K-pop community after seemingly coming out as Bi.
The second-gen icon took to his SNS to communicate with ELFs (fandom) via a live broadcast. While answering questions being asked by the viewers, he came across one question that truly became a hot topic among fans and netizens.
In particular, it appeared that Leeteuk has been seeing questions about his personal gender preference when it comes to relationships, to which he responded:
"The comments are asking if I like men or women? I like BOTH. I'm not the type to specifically dislike certain people. If I answer such a question too directly, it will become a controversy."
Super Junior’s Leeteuk on recent live:
— Kpop Charts (@kchartsmaster) July 6, 2024
— “The comments asked if I like men or women? I like both. I'm not the type to specifically dislike certain people. If I answer such a question too directly, it will cause controversy.” pic.twitter.com/aaoSJXVlyy
When this certain snippet was uploaded on X, it received explosive reactions and a lot were claiming that Leeteuk indirectly came out as "bisexual" a sexual minority that likes more than one sex or gender.
The LGBTQ+ and K-pop community were then so supportive of the 41-year-old icon and hoped that through him, more idols would actually follow and embrace their "true" selves.
Here are some of the comments:
- "He is a bisexual king!"
- "Our open king, we support."
- "Nothing wrong in liking both, that's why preference exists."
- "Being a queer in a K-pop group takes a lot of courage. Congratulations our bisexual king!"
I read some koreans comments regarding leeteuk’s last live. A lot of them were explaining he was mostly referring to the social differences between males and females and that’s why he said he didn’t want to cause controversy.
— ₊⋅ ˢᵘʲᵘAJᶠʳⁱᵉⁿᵈ ∘⁺ (@_Hyukjaee) July 7, 2024
Meanwhile, there are some Koreans who explained that his remark could be taken out of context, stating that what he meant by "creating a controversy" was most likely related to the social differences between males and females.
Regardless of whether Leeteuk is Bi or not, there are internet users who still commended the K-pop icon for supporting the community.
This is not the first time that he has publicly shown support for LGBTQ+ regardless of the sensitive Korean culture. In his YouTube live stream, a transgender opened up about their concerns of not being accepted by society and he warmly comforted them by saying:
"At times like this, you can just let go, and speak comfortably, you have nothing to be sorry about.[...] Jungho, I hope you can live your life, got it?"
LEETEUK ✨️ https://t.co/0PTRqpzac0 pic.twitter.com/cJ09G8AcOA
— I Live For HC 🍒 (@LiveForChul) July 6, 2024
On the flip side, there are internet users who are making fun of Super Junior and making hateful posts related to the other members.
They claimed that it was strange to see the leader in a group with members who were "homophobic" and "misogynist," naming Siwon, Heechul, and Shindong.
suju having a homophobe a queer member and a fatphobic member whos fat himself 😭 https://t.co/O3CmOgYkSN
— ✩ (@wonseula) July 6, 2024
The debate has gotten longer as ELFs immediately jumped to the members' defense and hoped that the forced hate would be stopped.
if ur not a fan of suju jus say “congrats” or any other generic expression sm1 would say to anyone coming out. . .istg theres no need 2 b making such kind of comments ab this at all like yall so obsessed over a group u dont even its actually pathetic lmfao like Grow up! https://t.co/d3hVlZ78Uf
— ♯sam (@YEETE3K) July 7, 2024
very weird how this man has been repeatedly and vocally supporting the lgbtq community for ages and y'all called him homoph*bic, but now suddenly you like him cause he might be bi himself? the only thing stronger than your hate for suju is your fucked up fetish for gay idols https://t.co/1AkPoAmV7Z
— Anna loves Chul 3000. (@SUJUSHlDAE_) July 7, 2024
For more K-Pop news and updates, keep your tabs open here at KpopStarz.
KpopStarz owns this article.
Written by Eunice Dela Cruz