In Historic Moment for K-Pop, JUSTB’s Bain Comes Out as a Member of the LGBTQ+ Community

Photo: Bluedot Entertainment

“I want to share something with you guys, I’m f***ing proud to be a part of the LGBTQ+ community,” Bain shares with his fans at JUSTB’s JUST ODD tour in the group’s April 22 Los Angeles stop.

With few openly queer artists in K-Pop, Bain’s decision to come out marks a brave choice, and a large step forward for the conservative-leaning K-Pop industry. The singer, 23, is one of only a handful of K-Pop artists to openly identify as queer, and the one of the first members of an active K-Pop boy group to do so. 

Queerness and artistic expression go hand-in-hand, with Bain crediting Lady Gaga as his inspiration in an Instagram post celebrating the occasion, following his cover of her song “Born This Way” at the JUST ODD concert.  

“I want to share something real with you. I’m proud to be a part of the LGBTQ+ community — as a gay person. And my queen Lady Gaga showed me that being different is beautiful. To anyone out there who’s part of the LGBTQ+ community, or still figuring it out — this is for you. You are seen, you are loved, and you were born this way.”

As fans celebrated the artist’s bravery, trending #PROUDOFBAIN and #WELOVEBAIN across social media platforms, the fellow JUSTB members also commended their fellow idol. Post-concert, Siwoo wrote on his fan messaging platform, “Byunghee [Bain] was so cool today! Applause for your courage  👏 I was crying too 😢”.

JUSTB, consisting of members Geonu, Bain, Lim Jimin, Siwoo, DY, and Sangwoo debuted under Blue Dot Entertainment in 2021. Their discography across  the last four years spans high-tempo synth-pop to alt pop-rock, to their newest foray into hyper-pop with their most recent release “Chest.” The group briefly combined with IST Entertainment’s fellow boy-group ATBO into 12-member combined group TheCrewOne to promote on the second season of Mnet’s K-Pop group survival show Road to Kingdom: ACE of ACE, finishing in fifth place. This was a hail mary push for both groups, with the agencies opting to promote them as a combined unit rather than disbanding either team in 2024. Now, having returned to promotions as their original six-member team, following the dissolution of TheCrewOne, JUSTB embarked on their successful, acclaimed 2025 world tour, JUST ODD, in a triumph against the odds. While the April 22 Los Angeles concert marked the conclusion of their world tour, their global promotions continue, with a performance at K-MTY Festival in Monterrey, Mexico on May 2. 

K-Pop continues in its global aspirations, yet openly queer idols remain few and far between. South Korea’s conservative-leaning culture and lack of non-discrimination laws makes for a challenging environment for openly-LGBTQ artists and performers. Singer Holland, an independent K-Pop artist, known as the first openly gay K-Pop idol, was assaulted and called a slur on the streets of Itaewon in 2022.

At the same time, elements from LGBTQ culture continue to trend, both in K-Pop circles and across social media. Tutting, voguing, and waacking, all dance styles that originate from predominantly Black gay clubs and LGBTQ+ social spaces of the late 20th century and with strong roots in the drag community, trend as idol group choreography and/or idol TikTok trends – Chungha’s “Stay Tonight” and LE SSERAFIM’s “Crazy,” to name only a few. Solar of MAMAMOO featured Korean drag queens and other performers from House of Love, a Kiki house and drag family, in her 2024 song “Colors.” 

Songs from both K-Pop and Western artists can be heard at the annual Seoul Queer Culture Festival. The festival, which takes place in late May to early June, is Korea’s largest LGBTQ+ festival, drawing crowds as large as 155,000. However, organizers continue to face challenges, both bureaucratically, in obtaining location permits from the conservative-majority city, and in the streets, as waves of counter protestors take to the streets each year in opposition to the event. The attendees of the Seoul Queer Culture Festival sing and chant for LGBTQ+ rights and an end to discrimination, soundtracked by iconic K-Pop songs such as Girls Generation’s “Into the New World” and SHINee’s“Identity” – singing of liberation and expressing one’s identity openly. Festival organizers take care to select songs that do not feature specific gendered terms.

The push for LGBTQ+ rights, dance, art, and music historically are intertwined, from the Black and Latino gay ballroom clubs of New York, Baltimore, and San Juan, among other cities, in the 1970s and 1980s, to the queer underground art scene of Hong Kong. For those operating under the K-Pop label, this is no different. All-gay boy group trio Lionesses debuted in 2021 and QI.X, a three-member group consisting of trans, nonbinary, and genderfluid members, actively promoted from 2023 to 2024 under independent label Sweet Potato Productions. Soloists Holland and MRSHLL, both openly gay, are also active musicians in the K-Pop scene. Soloist and former member of girl group WA$$UP Jiae came out as bisexual in 2020 on her instagram story, following the group’s disbandment in 2019. Lara from KATSEYE, American label Geffen Records’s and K-Pop label HYBE’s collaborative take on applying the K-Pop training and promotion system to a global girl group, came out as queer on her fan messaging platform in March 2025. 

While openly LGBTQ+ voices in K-Pop are few, they are mighty. Bain’s courage to share his identity with both his fans and the world, marks an incredible push for inclusivity in K-Pop. As JUSTB concluded their LA Concert, Bain reminded his fans, “Stay bold, stay fierce, and lastly, always, always be your true self.”

CultureAnya HeatonJUST BComment