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| Activists fighting for sexual minorities attend an event to commemorate International Transgender Day of Visibility, held on March. 31, 2021 in central Seoul. Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul |
By Lee Yeon-woo
Government agencies declined to accept a recommendation by the National Human Rights Commission of Korea (NHRCK) to compile statistics on sexual minorities, the state commission said Thursday.
"The prime minister, health and welfare minister, interior minister, minister of gender equality and family and commissioner of Statistic Korea declined the recommendation of the commission," the NHRCK said in a press release on Thursday.
Last March 16, ahead of the International Transgender Day of Visibility on March 31, the NHRCK requested the then-prime minister to prepare guidelines for identifying sexual minorities when compiling government statistics. The commission asked the other three ministries to develop and add a new category, related to sexual orientation when compiling statistical data in the future.
The NHRCK also recommended the commissioner of Statistics Korea eliminate transsexualism from the mental disorder list in the "Korean Standard Classification of Diseases" (KCD). The government statistics agency is in charge of the classification. International organizations such as the World Health Organization, have not classified transsexualism as a mental disorder since 2019.
The request was made during the leadership transition period. President Yoon Suk Yeol took office on May 10, two months after he won the March 9 presidential election.
None of the Cabinet ministries immediately followed the measures. They said, "It's hard to retrieve meaningful results from investigating sexual minorities because their samples are small."
Statistics Korea, which conducts population and housing censuses annually, added that the investigation requires a "careful approach."
"The number of people who refuse to respond to categories ― which they believe threaten to invade their privacy ― is increasing. The investigation needs a careful approach. It should consider social consensus, whether it's possible to conduct an on-the-spot survey, or even refusal to cooperate," it responded.
The government statistics agency also declined to eliminate transsexualism from the mental disorder list. It said it is unable to immediately reflect the recommendation to the updated KCD, which is set to be applied in 2026. But it added it will "consider" it in the future when reflecting the 11th version of the International Classification of Disease (ICD) to the KCD.
But the human rights watchdog continued pressuring the Cabinet ministries from April to December to take follow-up measures. The NHRCK formed a standing committee on Dec. 28, 2022, and concluded that the ministries declined to accept the recommendation.
Because of the uncooperative Cabinet ministries, the NHRCK said sexual minorities were excluded from the beneficiaries of government policies. It stressed that investigating their scale and situation is important so that they can be reflected in future policies.
"We want to clarify again that the existence of sexual minorities, including transgender people, should not be denied or be subject to discrimination and hatred," it said.
"To eliminate discrimination, such as excluding social minority groups from government policies, identifying the group's scale and needs should come first," it added.
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