by ALEX HYUN | @ahyundarkb4dawn
editor@charactermedia.com
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a longtime pioneer for gender equality, abortion rights and same-sex marriage, is on a five-day trip to South Korea to meet with members of the Constitutional Court of Korea and address issues of social equality and human rights, according to Yonhap News.
Ginsburg is the first Supreme Court justice to visit South Korea since Sandra Day O’Connor in 1987. Her trip comes during a Supreme Court recess that lasts until October and just a little more than a month after the Court, by a 5-4 vote, struck down bans against same-sex marriage throughout the country.
At 82, Ginsburg is currently the oldest justice on the Supreme Court bench. She was appointed in 1993 by President Clinton, becoming the second female justice in the history of the Supreme Court. She is considered a part of the Court’s liberal wing, and is known as much for her forceful dissents as she is her majority opinions in cases involving gender discrimination in the workplace, racially discriminatory hiring practices and abortion rights. Before she joined the bench, she worked as a law professor and co-founded the American Civil Liberties Union Women’s Rights Project in 1972.
Justice Ginsburg pays a courtesy call on Korea’s Supreme Court Chief Justice Yang Seung-tae. pic.twitter.com/bbOHS1IbbY
— 주한미국대사관 U.S. Embassy Seoul (@USEmbassySeoul) August 4, 2015
In South Korea, Ginsburg met with Korea Supreme Court Chief Justice Yang Sung-tae to discuss human rights and minority rights protection.
The justice also attended a special dinner at the U.S. military base in Yongsan, in which invited guests included well-known South Korean film director Kim Jho Gwangsoo and his partner Kim Seung-hwan, and transgender pop star Harisu. Food was served by Korea’s first openly gay chef-comedian, Hong Seok-cheon, reported Korea Bizwire.
Ginsburg’s message to dinner attendees was to offer hope that social change is on the horizon in South Korea. Still very much a socially conservative society, South Korea does not recognize same-sex marriage and continues to grapple with workplace inequity among men and women.
“Do not lose your faith in change and pluck up your courage,” Ginsburg told the attendees, as reported by Korea Bizwire. “The United States changed even later than the Netherlands. Korea can go forward towards change in a calm and orderly way.”
On Wednesday, Ginsburg met with Korea’s Constitutional Court president Park Han-chul, reported the JoongAng Ilbo, and along with Justice Kim So-young—one of two females out of 14 members on the Supreme Court of Korea—delivered a speech on the issue of protecting minority rights.
“Give the same opportunities to your daughters…with no artificial barriers placed in the way,” Ginsburg said, according to the JoongAng Ilbo.
The justice is being accompanied on her South Korea trip by daughter Jane Ginsburg, a professor at Columbia Law School, South Korean media outlets reported.
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