School is meant to be a place of discovery. A place to learn about the world and your place in it. For many LGBT people it is a challenging time of life – where being a bit different can make you a target for others. In South Korea, discrimination against LGBT people can come from both students and teachers. Eight times the Korean parliament has attempted to pass an act that would outlaw discrimination on multiple grounds including sexual orientation. But each time it has come up against some powerful opposition.
A report from Human Rights Watch has placed this push for South Korea’s anti-discrimination laws in the spotlight. It tells of bullying, outing of children to parents and a void of support from teachers. We spoke to Ryan Thoreson, a researcher in the LGBT rights program at Human Rights Watch about the report titled – ‘I Thought of Myself as Defective’: Neglecting the Rights of LGBT Youth in South Korean Schools.