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🇰🇷 South Korea /Culture & Society

“We Go to School Every Day Too”: Groups Urge South Korea to Restore LGBTQ Content in Anti-Hate Guidebook

From Hankyoreh · () Korean

Translated from Korean and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

News Named sources Ongoing story
  • A coalition of 132 South Korean civil society and human rights groups demanded that the Education Ministry restore deleted LGBTQ-related content in a school guidebook on hate and discriminatory expression.
  • LGBTQ youths described experiences of ridicule and hostility at school, while a support center said it collected about 160 student accounts and demands over four days.
  • The groups said removing references to sexual orientation, gender identity and anti-LGBTQ hate undermined the guidebook’s stated goal of creating respectful and inclusive schools.

“LGBTQ youths, including me, go to school every day.” That message from a 15-year-old student in Gyeonggi Province was read at a Seoul rally demanding that South Korea’s Education Ministry restore LGBTQ-related material deleted from a school guidebook.

The guidebook aims to help schools respond to hate and discriminatory expression. But references to sexual orientation and gender identity were removed during revisions, along with explanations of LGBTQ people, examples of anti-LGBTQ hate and guidance for responding to such incidents at school.

LGBTQ youths, including me, go to school every day. Please recognize that we are students who deserve the same respect as our friends.

— 15-year-old LGBTQ student in Gyeonggi ProvinceAn appeal to the Education Ministry over the removal of LGBTQ-related material from the school guidebook.

A coalition of 132 groups, including the Korean Teachers and Education Workers Union, the Coalition for the Enactment of an Anti-Discrimination Law, youth LGBTQ support center Tingdong and Rainbow Action Against Sexual Minority Discrimination, held the news conference at Gwanghwamun Square. They called for all deleted content to be restored.

We are not mere stains to be erased and censored.

— 17-year-old LGBTQ youth in SeoulA statement presented at the rally criticizing the removal of LGBTQ references.

Tingdong said it gathered accounts of hate-speech 피해 and messages for the Education Ministry and education offices during the four days after the controversy emerged. About 160 young people responded. A 17-year-old from Seoul said LGBTQ people were not “mere stains to be erased and censored,” while a 16-year-old from Daegu said ridicule and hateful attitudes toward LGBTQ people had spread among young people and urged the ministry to work actively to change those perceptions.

The groups said the guidebook’s purpose had been seriously damaged once LGBTQ people were excluded. They argued that deleting the material because of opposing complaints amounted to siding with hate and legitimizing discrimination. The ministry developed the national guidebook after an incident involving students at Seoul’s Baejae High School mocking the May 18 Democratic Uprising, using a draft prepared by the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education as its basis.

The culture of holding misconceptions about LGBTQ people, ridiculing them and expressing hatred has spread among young people.

— 16-year-old LGBTQ youth in DaeguA call for education authorities to address hostility toward LGBTQ students.
About this summary

Originally published by Hankyoreh in Korean. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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