Expanding the Concept of Workplace Sexual Harassment
By Kim Hyeong-gyeong
Published: January 3,
2016
Translated by Marilyn
Hook
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.”
These 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 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
|
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.
Whether or not the
victims in the cases introduced above can bring a sexual harassment suit based
on the Equal Employment Opportunity Law may vary depending on the case and
requires further research. For example, the action of spreading sexual rumors
about a female coworker has been ruled sexual harassment in a previous case,
but can this be extended to spreading rumors that a coworker is a lesbian?
How about when a
coworker repeatedly makes hateful remarks like “homosexuals’ lives only end in
dying of AIDS”, thus creating such a hostile work environment that fulfilling
one’s duties becomes impossible? Is it workplace sexual harassment when male
employees humiliate a transgender man into not using the men’s bathroom in the
workplace?
 |
| Pride at Work Canada is a non-profit organization made up of LGBT people and others who support LGBT labor rights @ Pride at Work Canada |
It is only relatively
recently that LGBTQI people have started to become visible in South Korea. When
business owners were first charged (by the Framework Act on Women’s
Development) with the responsibility of preventing sexual harassment in 1995,
or even when sexual harassment was officially defined in the Equal Employment
Opportunity Law in 1999, the belief that LGBTQI people existed only in faraway
countries was prevalent. (Hong Seok-cheon was outed in September 2000.)
But now the situation
has changed. The public has become familiar with the existence of LGBTQI people
through characters on their living-room TV sets, and they are mentioned in a
variety of news stories, in both positive and negative ways. As the existence
of LGBTQI people has begun to become visible, hatred of them has also grown
more serious. The workplace is no exception, and so LGBTQI people are exposed
to serious hateful harassment in the workplace.
The National Human
Rights Commission’s “Survey of Discrimination Based on Sexual Orientation and
Gender Identity” reveals the various types of workplace harassment and the
psychological and material harm they cause. With consideration of the changed
social environment surrounding LGBTQI people, the report also points out the
necessity of changing laws related to sexual harassment.
It must be included in sexual harassment prevention
education
According to the survey
on discrimination against LGBT people, most victims of harassment take no
particular countermeasures. Ninety-two percent of respondents said that they
didn’t even protest.
As for the reasons that
they didn’t protest or take action, the most common response (multiple
responses were possible) was because of a fear that their sexual orientation or
gender identity would be revealed (59%). In second and third places were
“because I thought it might backfire”(34%) and “because I didn’t think it would
do any good”(30%).
The results of this
survey demonstrate the urgent necessity of expanding the definition of
workplace sexual harassment, establishing countermeasures, and creating proper
sexual harassment prevention education. We must make it clear that harassment
committed for the reasons of sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender
expression falls under the category of workplace sexual harassment, and make
systematic efforts to prevent it from occurring and to help victims.
*Original
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