The complaint South Korea’s Education Ministry must hear

The Education Ministry says it will produce a guidebook on responding to hate and discrimination after a series of incidents mocking the May 18 pro-democracy movement. Yet the guidebook reportedly omits sexual orientation and gender identity. That omission has drawn strong protests from human-rights and civil-society groups.

The omission is especially troubling in schools, argues Hong Seong-soo, a law professor at Sookmyung Women’s University. LGBTQ+ students are among the groups that require protection, and teachers and students need concrete examples to understand how hate and discrimination appear in daily school life.

A 2025 survey by South Korea’s National Human Rights Commission found suspected depressive symptoms among 69.0% of LGBTQ+ adolescents. Some 17.4% said they had experienced leaving school, citing an unfriendly school environment and bullying or ostracism. Experiences of harassment by teachers and students stood at 31.2% and 60.0%, respectively.

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This is the very complaint the Education Ministry should listen to.

Hong says he has studied hate and discrimination for more than 15 years and has never seen guidance on the subject that completely excludes LGBTQ+ people. The National Human Rights Commission and human-rights groups have repeatedly documented discrimination against them. The Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education, reportedly involved in providing the draft, has also published guidance and educational materials without leaving out LGBTQ+ people.

The columnist says the exclusion cannot be dismissed as merely careless. Whatever the intention, its result can only be read as deliberate exclusion. South Korea’s National Human Rights Commission Act has listed sexual orientation as a ground for discrimination since 2001, while a 2017 revision of Seoul’s student-rights ordinance explicitly prohibited hateful expression based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

LGBTQ+ adolescents have called for inclusive curriculum content, preventive education, greater awareness and school rules banning hate and discrimination. Hong argues that these are the complaints the Education Ministry should hear, rather than yielding to objections against including LGBTQ+ people. He welcomes the ministry’s decision to create a guidebook, but says it must become a reliable standard for students, teachers and supporters of equality. A guidebook against hate and discrimination cannot itself be branded discriminatory.

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A guidebook against hate and discrimination cannot itself be branded discriminatory.