Holland, one of the first openly gay K-Pop idols, said on Twitter that he was assaulted while walking in Itaewon, Seoul, South Korea, on May 5.
“Last night, I was walking around Itaewon with my manager and a friend. Suddenly, a stranger man approached me and hit me on the face twice, calling me ‘a dirty gay,’” Holland wrote on Twitter. “Now I have a scar on my face and I’m going to the hospital soon.” He included two photos of himself with the tweet, showing his face with two cuts around his nose.
The singer is one of South Korea’s most prominent openly LGBTQ figures, in a country where homosexuality is largely taboo. Since the start of his career, Holland has been open about his sexuality despite facing challenges in finding an agency to back him because of it.
About a month ago, Holland said during a livestream that he has a new boyfriend, someone who isn’t in the entertainment industry. Because he’s open about his identity, Holland, whose given name is Go Tae-seob, wrote on Twitter that he believes his attack was a hate crime.