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A 34-year-old migrant woman boarded a taxi, only to be asked by the driver if things were “good in bed with her husband at night.” Her friend, also a female migrant, was standing at a subway station exit when she was shocked to hear a male South Korean stranger tell her, “I bet you’ve had a tough time making money since coming here. If you go with me, I’ll give you 300,000 won (US$260) a month in spending money.”

It‘s not only migrant women who suffer sexual harassment. A 35-year-old man from Southeast Asia reported, “I’ve had people first ask me where I‘m from and what my religion is, then suddenly ask things like ’How many wives do you have?‘ and ’How‘s your sex life?’”

“Both male and female migrants get sexually harassed quite a bit,” he added.

A 33-year-old transgender woman was on her way to work when a stranger asked her something.

“Are you transgender? You have a pretty face,” the man asked her.

When she rebuffed him, the man unexpectedly said, “Your voice gives you away. Why don‘t you come with me in my car and do it with me?”

A 30-year-old woman with an intellectual disability was taking the elevator while changing trains with her non-disabled boyfriend when she suffered the indignity of watching as a middle-aged woman asked him, “What are you doing breaking your parents’ hearts like this?”

The National Human Rights Commission of Korea (NHRCK) released findings on Feb. 19 from a study commissioned last year from the Sookymung Women‘s University industry-academic cooperation team. For the study titled “A Survey of Hate Speech and Ideas for Regulation,” 1,014 LGBT individuals, women, disabled persons, migrants, and non-minority males were given questionnaires and in-person interviews, with the findings subjected to online analysis.

As the first systematic study conducted in South Korea on the issue of hate speech, which emerged as a serious social issue in the 2010s, it was enormous in scale and breadth, with the resulting report coming out to 340 pages. The findings are now drawing particular attention for in-depth interview data from 20 people in various minority groups, which describe the hate speech they endure and the suffering it causes.

According to the report, 94.6% of LGBT respondents had experienced victimization by hate speech online, as had 83.7% of women, 79.5% of disabled persons, and 42.1% of migrants. LGBT respondents also had the highest rate of experience with offline hate speech victimization at 87.5%, followed by disabled persons (73.5%), women (70.2%), and migrants (51.6%).

The findings showed 84.7% of LGBT respondents, 70.5% of disabled respondents, 63.9% of female respondents, and 52.3% of migrant respondents reporting they were scared of being discriminated against because of their identity. They also indicated 92.6% of LGBT individuals, 87.1% of women, and 81% of disabled persons were concerned about being victims of hate crimes.

Members of victimized minority groups reported being excluded from work, school, and other areas of daily life due to stigma and prejudice and feeling continued stress or helplessness when they experienced fear or sadness as a result. Experiences with psychological difficulties of various types, including stress, suicidal impulses, depression, panic attacks, and post-traumatic stress disorder, were reported by 58.8% of disabled persons, 56.9% of migrants, and 49.3% of LGBT individuals.

“While legislation to deal with hate speech is needed, there are also concerns it could conflict with freedom of expression, so ’productive regulations‘ beyond regulations on hate speech itself are needed to boost civil society’s response capabilities,” the researchers said.

The NHRCK said it plans to gather opinions from experts and related parties based on the study’s findings to develop plans for hate speech prevention.

By Ahn Young-choon, staff reporter

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