South Korea does not have a strong and visible lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender social movement in the public, despite active issue advocacy organizations, political representation from the Democratic Labour Party, and popular television shows that portray LGBT characters and themes. The LGBT movement has had a difficult time growing in South Korea because, as some have argued South Korea has long been ignorant about homosexuality and awareness of ‘gay’ had not been discovered until the early 1990s. I will look at three causal reasons that best describe the dearth of a growing social movement pushing for LGBT rights.