Looking Back on a Queer Year for K-Pop: Growing Representation in a Genre Known for Heteronormativity, by Emma McCarthy

Alexa…play “Please Don’t…” by K.Will…..

This past year has been big for LGBTQ+ fans of K-Pop. From genderless group concepts to openly queer idols, the industry has seen a positive growth in queer representation and acceptance. 

PT. 1: “I don’t explain, I just exist” - “Dirty Baby”, XLOV

January 7th, 2025 marked the debut of XLOV, a K-Pop group with a genderless concept consisting of four members: Wumuti, Hyun, Rui, and Haru. The majority of members appeared on K-Pop survival show Boys’ Planet, but failed to debut in the final lineup (which would become the ever popular, yet unfortunately now fractured, ZEROBASEONE). Wúmùtí Tǔěrxùn, better known by their stage name “Wumuti”, is the mastermind, leader, and producer behind XLOV. Debuting with the single “Imma Be”, the groups’ styling and dance leaned into their genderless concept with skirts, makeup, and flexible dance moves. XLOV has continued to grow into their identity as a gender nonconforming group with their most recent album UXLXVE.

Queer fans of XLOV are drawn to the group’s unabashed self expression within a rather conservative industry. Early on in their career, Wumuti expressed concern that no other group would want to film dance challenges with them since their concept is considered to be so “far-out.” Contrary to this concern, the way they continue to embrace queerness is what makes so many people excited to support the group. XLOV has been spotted with other queer Korean celebrities including music artist Holland and drag queen NANA Youngrong Kim. Rui and Hyun also appeared in the most recent season of Jewel Box, a Korean web variety show hosted by Korea’s first openly gay celebrity: Hong Seok-cheon.

While none of the members have explicitly stated anything about their gender identities or sexualities, their genderless concept has brought together queer K-Pop fans from around the globe. The members have expressed that they are comfortable with all English pronouns, with fans and even the members themselves using masculine, neutral, and feminine terms on one another. Wumuti leads by example by using a feminine first pronoun for themself in Japanese. 

PT.2: JustB

JustB’s Bain, went viral for his coming out during the LA stop of the ‘JUST ODD’ tour on April 22nd, 2025. Since his coming out, Bain has received nothing but support from international fans and his fellow JustB members. While it’s not illegal to be gay in Korea, the country remains overwhelmingly conservative, and being in an industry that champions heteronormativity, coming out takes guts.

“I’m f***ing proud to be a part of the LGBTQ+ community, as a gay person. Shout out to my queen Lady Gaga, who showed me that being different is beautiful. To everyone out there who’s part of LGBTQ+ or still figuring it out, this is for you guys. And, also, this is for everyone. You’re seen. You’re loved. And, you are born this way,” Bain declared on stage before performing Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way” and waving a Pride flag on stage. His fellow JustB members have shown continuous support and comradery toward Bain, saying that they knew it was a difficult thing for him to be open about, and they are very proud. 

I had the opportunity to see JustB live in Columbus, OH on April 6th at Skully’s Music Diner. Besides having K-Pop’s first active queer idol, JustB is known for their irresistible and unique music. Over the years their sound has shifted from “classic” K-Pop boy group to electropop reminiscent of other artists like 2hollis. 

During the concert, Bain performed a Lady Gaga themed solo stage with songs “Abracadabra”, “Judas”, “Scheiße”, “Telephone”, and “Poker Face”. As a self-proclaimed Little Monster and OnlyB, I was screaming my head off during this segment. 

After coming out and performing “Born This Way” on his previous tour, this return to a Gaga set with the charisma and stage presence of a drag artist, felt like a full-circle moment. In an industry (and country) that is so conservative, seeing an idol loudly express themself in such a way was life changing. As a queer K-Pop stan myself, seeing the rise in idols proudly expressing their identity makes me feel a little more seen.  

PT.3: And more…

It’s time for some rapid fire…

On December 6th 2025, Cocona of (K-Pop adjacent) Japanese global group XG came out as a transmasculine nonbinary individual in an Instagram post that proudly displayed their top surgery scars and has expressed that he is fine with he/they pronouns in English. Both his group members and other K-pop figures have shown support, such as JustB’s Bain, and Japanese girl group f5ve. The company even decided to change the group name from XGALX meaning “Xtrordinary Girls” to “Xtrordinary Genes”. Cocona has also altered some of their lines to befit their gender identity such as changing the honorifics he refers to himself with in live performances of “WOKE UP”. “Young queen but I act like an unnie” was changed to “Young king but I act like a hyung-nim”, with “unnie” being what younger women use to refer to older women and “hyung-nim” being what younger men use to refer to older men.  

QQQ, a subunit of OnlyOneOf (OOO), debuted on February 26th of 2026 with the song “UNCOOL”. OOO is another K-Pop group beloved by queer K-Pop stans for the queer themes in their music videos and for starring in the web BL series “Bump Up Business” in 2023. The “UndergrOund idOl” project is another staple in the queer stan community as a six part music video series featuring queer storylines for which the members were involved in production. Fans were quick to claim this subunit as another queer coded group thanks to the queer couples featured in the “UNCOOL” music video and the choice of QQQ as the subunit’s name. 

Immensely popular overseas, global girl group KATSEYE has also been breaking barriers with Lara and Megan coming out as queer and bisexual respectively. The group has also garnered a large following of queer fans due to their camp sound and styling.

The aforementioned program Boys Planet has also seen its fair share of queer representation. Besides the XLOV members who appeared in the show's first season, other participants have come out since the show’s airing including fan-favorite Haruto and Krystian Wang. Semi-recently, Haruto came under fire for jokingly saying that no participant on Boys Planet was straight. In the show's second season, Boys II Planet, Taichi, a trainee with rather limited screentime who was eliminated early appeared on the fourth season of the gay dating show His Man. 

Another former contestant of a survival show, Boys24, came out as transgender. Now going by the stage name Cherry, Ryujin made waves as she came out on a YouTube livestream on July 18th, 2025.

To round out this article, we have i-dle. On January 27th 2026, the girl group released “Mono” featuring nonbinary British rapper Skaiwater. The song has been gaining attention for its inclusive and LGBTQ+ positive lyrics and messaging.  

Do you wanna hear more queer (and queercoded) K-pop? Oh bae, I gotchu….here :-)