South Korea’s Supreme Court ruled on July 18 that denying health insurance coverage to same-sex spouses constitutes discrimination based on sexual orientation, affirming a lower court’s Feb. 2023 decision. However, the LGBTQ+ community continues to face pervasive discrimination and legislative inaction in their fight for equal rights.

The court stated that denying those benefits to same-sex couples, even without specific provisions for same-sex unions in the country’s National Health Insurance Act, “violates the constitutional principle of equality and infringes on human dignity and the right to equality before the law.”