[단독] 교육부, ‘성소수자’ 뺀 차별 가이드북 발표 보류…“추가 검토할 것”

The Ministry of Education has decided to postpone the announcement of the controversial 'Hate and Discrimination Expression Response Guidebook' due to the deletion of content related to sexual minorities. This decision was influenced by the strong opposition from various education, human rights, religious, and legal organizations regarding the guidebook's draft.

The Ministry of Education announced that they would meet with experts who had reviewed the guidebook on the 31st to discuss the issue of omitting content related to sexual minorities. They plan to seek feedback from the Anti-Discrimination Law Alliance and other organizations. The Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education has also requested a review of the guidebook, which was previously provided by the Ministry.

The Ministry's guidebook, aimed at preventing incidents like the '5·18 slur' involving a baseball team, was set to be distributed to schools nationwide. However, the absence of content related to sexual minorities led to widespread controversy. Six out of the seven experts who agreed to review the guidebook strongly opposed the decision to omit this content and withdrew their names from the review committee.

The Ministry stated that they had incorporated the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education's draft of the 'Prevention and Response Guidebook on Hate and Discrimination Expressions' (not for distribution) into the guidebook. However, the final version of the guidebook omitted all content related to sexual minorities, such as 'sexual orientation' and 'gender identity.'

The Ministry cited concerns about potential backlash from dissenting citizens as the reason for removing the sexual minorities' content. Following the announcement of the guidebook's contents, several education, human rights, religious, and legal organizations released critical statements condemning the decision.