Actor Lee Jung Jae and 'Vogue Korea' on the chopping block for outing the late Woo Jong Wan as gay

Actor Lee Jung Jae is in some hot waters after his recent interview with 'Vogue Korea' was released in the February edition of the magazine.

In it, he said, "A while ago, I had to let a loving friend go to the Heavens. I remember telling Y, 'Stop being gay. Hasn't it been enough?' but it wasn't easy stopping him."

Netizens narrowed 'Y' down to the late Woo Jong Wan, a creative director and TV star who commit suicide last year, because the magazine had specifically included as an additional explanation at the bottom: "The Y mentioned by Lee Jung Jae was a prominent gay creative director in the fashion industry who lost his life last year."

Netizens then began criticizing Lee Jung Jae for outing a fellow friend's secret he had kept his entire life, leading Lee Jung Jae's reps to come out and say, "Lee Jung Jae would never be so irresponsible towards his friend of 20 years, especially not when he has a movie to promote. The magazine's editor will be writing an explanation over the misunderstandings on their Twitter."

Well, 'Vogue Korea' did come out with an "explanation", but not really. They tweeted:

"We feel upset that actor Lee Jung Jae is being misunderstood over an interview he had with 'Vogue'. Lee Jung Jae and Woo Jong Wan had a special friendship together and we hope that his feelings of sorrow over the loss of his friend are not misdelivered to the reader. We ask that they are no longer hurt by the false accusations being made by the media and in their comments, and that the media focuses on putting out articles consisting of only the truth."

-

Article: Lee Jung Jae's reps "Outing a friend of 20 years? Impossible... Not logical"

Source: OSEN via Nate

1. [+144, -7] He commit suicide because life was so difficult to live... I feel so bad for Woo Jong Wan for being in the media like this again...

2. [+150, -14] What if he said it off the record because he's close with the journalist but the journalist decided to stab his back? There are those journalists who promise you that they won't use certain things you said but end up putting them out anyway for the views... Either way, Lee Jung Jae is in the wrong.

3. [+134, -8] Vogue basically confirmed that 'Y' is Woo Jong Wan with their tweet. Whether or not they meant it doesn't matter because imagine how much of a shock this puts his family and friends in...

4. [+50, -8] Is being gay some kind of job that you can quit...? Even if he was his close friend, it was absolutely disrespectful of him to tell him to 'quit' being a sexual preference... It doesn't matter how positive his intentions were, I'm pretty sure it had to have hurt him. It's not a life he chose, and he was obviously conflicted with it... And on top of that, he decided to out a dead friend like this? This reminds me of a friend who wrote on Facebook, "Hey OOO, I'm not embarrassed of you being gay. Find strength." The friend that was outed like that on Facebook ended up dropping out of school... If it doesn't concern you, you have no business outing anyone like that.

5. [+40, -10] This reminds me of why Hong Suk Chun changed his ideal man to Song Seung Hun. His ideal man was originally Lee Jung Jae, he said so on TV, but Lee Jung Jae had told him not to say those things anymore so he received permission from Song Seung Hun to call him his ideal man instead. Song Seung Hun had readily agreed, and that he would love it if he considered him so... While Song Seung Hun has a kind heart, Lee Jung Jae has a lot to learn from him...

6. [+38, -6] How could someone that told his friend to "quit being gay" consider himself a friend... -_-

7. [+38, -2] No matter what his intentions were, this is definitely a case of forced outing. Lee Jung Jae is in the wrong, and we all knew that journalists were of trashy caliber like this to begin with.

-

Article: 'Vogue' reps apologize for Lee Jung Jae's 'outing controversy' twice, why...?

Source: News 24 via Naver

1. [+714, -11] Vogue Korea is the one that made the mistake so why are they not apologizing and instead shifting all of the blame onto the media and the netizens? I don't see the word apology anywhere in their tweet.

2. [+584, -7] I read in another article that Lee Jung Jae, Woo Jong Wan, and the Vogue article's editor were close friends. It seems Lee Jung Jae was speaking with the editor off the record which she decided to use for more hits. The tweet is problematic because it doesn't include an apology at all and instead makes themselves sound like the victims, which absolutely disgusts me.

3. [+571, -10] Vogue is hilarious. The problem is not Lee Jung Jae's intentions behind his words. What's important is that they put out a secret that a dead man has kept all his life into the public for piranhas to latch onto. Lee Jung Jae is not being victimized by the netizens but by YOU, Vogue.

4. [+502, -2] I guess my eyes are weird because I don't see an apology anywhere in that tweet

5. [+350, -31] To all the people hating on Lee Jung Jae, do you seriously think he had said "stop being gay!!!!" with ill intentions? He knows how difficult it is to live in Korea as a gay man and being his friend, he probably saw how miserable Woo Jong Wan was having to deal with all of it. He probably felt bad for him and just asked him to stop being gay... Of course, we all know it's easier said than done but I think he had every right as his friend to express his concern in such a way...

-