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.”

The National Health Insurance Service (NHIS) statedthat it