2025웨딩박람회“The workers that you meet all day can you imagine? They may all be sexual minorities” The 2009 “Sexual Minority Labor Rights” campaign created by the Korean Confederation of Trade Union’s Women’s Committee, Solidarity for LGBT Human Rights of Korea, and the Democratic Labor Party’s Sexual Minorities Committee Editor’s note: Author Kim Hyeon-gyeong is a researcher with SOGI Legal Policy Research Society. SOGI stands for “sexual orientation” and “gender identity.” “In an interview, I was outright asked how my genitals are different.” (Transgender man) “I was outed (as a lesbian) at my part-time job, and the boss said that if I didn’t want to get fired or have other people find out, I would have to sleep with him.” “Because I don’t talk about women with my male coworkers, it seems that at least once a week I hear about how I’m not a real man or get asked when I will get married.” “They try to connect me with male employees even though they know I’m a lesbian, and it makes me uncomfortable.” 웨딩박람회These are some of the cases of workplace harassment experienced by LGBTQI people that were detailed in Human Rights Foundation Gonggam’s “Survey of Discrimination Based on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity,” commissioned in 2014 by the National Human Rights Commission. Harassment because of not fitting stereotypes about gender The survey interviewed 568 LGBTQI people over the age of 19 about their experiences of related discrimination in the workplace. Forty-four percent of gay or bisexual women and 38% of gay or bisexual men answered that they have experienced exclusion, threats, criticism, ridicule, property damage, molestation, or violence at their current workplace. In addition, 62% of transgender people said they have been the target of workplace discrimination due to their gender identity. The harassment that LGBTQI people experience in the workplace is often of a sexual nature. The main reason for this harassment is criticism, disparagement, and hatred based on their non-conformation to traditional gender stereotypes about masculinity and femininity. One respondent said that she had been subjected to verbal abuse by coworkers who suspected that she was a lesbian and told her to admit the “dirty” fact. A transgender woman said that her coworkers and boss commented on how she “seemed like a woman” and repeatedly touched her breasts and buttocks. When you look at the cases of those who, unable to receive systematic or legal help, end up quitting their jobs,it becomes even clearer how serious the problem of workplace sexual harassment of LGBTQI people is. “They continually committed sexual harassment by saying they wanted to see a lesbian’s daily life and asking if I had a sex life.” “They swore at me, saying that homosexuals’ lives only end in dying of AIDS and that God would punish them. And they interfered in every little thing I did and how I walked, and started to complain about my unfeminineclothes and attitude. That company didn’t even have a dress code. (…) The extreme stress made me grind my teeth and curse in my sleep. After I quit, those habits went away.” “Because of my identity, people in the company gossiped about my partners and some of my friends and excluded me, and eventually I quit.” Can LGBTQI victims receive legal protections? There is an international trend toward expanding the concept of sexual harassment or sexual discrimination to include harassment related to an individual’s sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression. Domestically, however, serious discussion of this problem has yet to begin.