How They Became Allies: The Korean Protestant Regime of Truth and the Ethical Subjectivation.

Abstract

This study examines the self-formation of Protestant allies within South Korea's heteronormative Protestant regime of truth, where opposition to LGBTQ rights remains strong. While conservative Protestant groups actively resist LGBTQ advocacy, some Protestants support sexual minorities despite facing personal and institutional risks. Drawing on Foucault's theory of subjectivation and Butler's concept of ethical subjectivation, this study frames allyship as an ongoing performative process shaped by relational encounters and acts of solidaristic engagement. Based on in-depth interviews with 12 Protestant individuals, it identifies key triggers for desubjectivation, such as disillusionment with Protestant institutions, unaccountable suffering, and exposure to counter-discourses, and examines the practices through which they reconfigure their subjectivity. These include participating in the Queer Culture Festival, publicly coming out as allies, and reappropriating religious rituals as acts of resistance. By disrupting the conditions of recognition within the Protestant regime of truth and destabilizing their prior Protestant identity, Protestant allies reconfigure their subjectivity and redefine what it means to be Protestant while assuming ethical responsibility for LGBTQ individuals.