'There are gay people in schools, too': Teachers form 1st LGBTQ+ committee

“Schools have gay people, too!” That was the message of support from a teacher in a booklet published ahead of the launch of the Sexual Minorities Committee of the Korean Teachers and Education Workers Union (KTU). On March 1, the committee became the union’s first-ever body dedicated to sexual minorities. It brings together LGBTQ+ teachers and teachers who support them. Their shared hope is that LGBTQ+ students will encounter at least one teacher who supports them during their years at school. On the evening of Sept. 14, The Hankook Ilbo spoke by phone with “Mo,” the committee’s inaugural chairperson, who uses a pseudonym as an activist. Schools ask about gender every day Mo is a 13-year veteran elementary school teacher. At the first staff meeting held at the school where Mo currently works, Mo proposed eliminating a numbering system that divides students by gender. Under the system, the 30 students in a class are divided into boys and girls, with boys assigned numbers starting with 1 and girls from 16, in alphabetical order. The students are then divided into “boys’ team