By Tae Hong

The lone candidate for student body president at Seoul National University, South Korea’s top institution, came out as a lesbian during a campaign meeting on campus Thursday.

Kim Bo-mi, 23, is a consumer and child studies major who if elected would become the university’s first openly gay student body president. She’s currently running unopposed.

“I want the world to be a place in which people who work hard do not suffer,” Kim said during her speech. “I want this to be a world in which no one has to fit under a label of what is ‘normal.’ I want this to be a world in which people can love themselves for who they are and in which they can live confidently. That’s why I am telling you. I’m a lesbian.”

According to South Korean outlet News1, Kim had the support of the 40-or-so students present at the meeting. When the full text of her speech hit the website of the university’s student newspaper, the Seoul National University Journal, Thursday, heavy traffic brought down the site.

Kim is currently vice president of the student body. During her time at the school, she has led a student effort to solve problems involving sexual harrassment and abuse by professors and has been active as a board member of the student council’s committee on student and civil rights.

“The fact that I’m a lesbian is just another piece of who I am,” she said. “The things I believe in, the things I’ve done as vice president, and the things I want to accomplish in the future — those things will not change.”

The slogan of Kim’s campaign is “Moving As One Toward Diversity.”

Gay rights activism has seen a sharp rise in South Korea in recent years despite a lack of representation in popular media — only one South Korean celebrity, Hong Seok-cheon, is openly gay.

A poll conducted to gauge South Korean citizens’ views on gay rights showed a nearly doubled increase in open-mindedness from 2010 to 2014 on homosexuality among people in their 20s, according to the Asan Institute.

The same poll showed an increase in same-sex marriage support from 16.9 percent in 2010 to 28.5 percent in 2014 among all citizens, and 30.5 to 60.2 percent among the younger generation.

“The image and the direction I envision for this school is of a space in which we can exist as ourselves, and as a society in which that in itself is accepted as beautiful,” Kim said. “That’s the reason I’m coming out today.”