It is important to pay attention to the rights of lesbians and gay men within the global context of antidiscrimination. This study focused on the young generation’s perceptions of same-sex sexuality and their attitudes toward same-sex marriage with revisiting Korean Confucianism as a conceptual framework. A total of 110 college students residing in the Seoul metropolitan areas of South Korea participated in this study. The study used participant-generated imagery and face-to-face interviews for data collection. Data were examined using a hybrid approach of thematic analysis that relied on deductive and inductive coding. The results highlighted young Koreans’ conflicting perceptions of same-sex sexuality and ambivalent attitudes toward same-sex marriage. Young Koreans perceived lesbians and gay men as marginalized in spite of democratic transition and social movements in South Korea. They showed tolerance to same-sex sexuality under a human rights–based approach. At the same time, the results revealed that they still held on to traditional Korean Confucianism. There are young Koreans opposing same-sex marriage because of their rationale of Confucian heteronormativity, value of social order within collectivism, and belief of familism. The results suggest a reinterpretation of the young generation’s ambivalence regarding same-sex sexuality in the light of Confucian-family-oriented collectivism in South Korea.
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