The Gender Sexuality Awareness club, GSA, is a relatively small student club in Seoul International School (SIS). Working to support both gender equality and the LGBTQ+ community, GSA strives to create a community where people of different orientations could feel safe. In tandem with the concept of safety, GSA has begun the Safe Space Program. A Safe Space is traditionally known as “a place or environment in which a person or category of people can feel confident that they will not be exposed to discrimination, criticism, harassment, or any other emotional or physical harm” (Oxford Dictionary). The GSA Safe Space Program operates by designating certain classrooms with “safe space logos” that are rectangular markers pasted on the doors of these classrooms.
 
(Placing the safe space logo onto the door of a classroom)
With several cases of bullying occurring across the world due to a student’s sexual orientation, The Safe Space Program serves as a symbol of anti-bullying. By applying the Safe Space concept, the student community in SIS is taking its first step towards promoting equality.  Jaeyoon Choi, a student at SIS, responded that “I don't agree wholly with the idea of creating designated "spaces" that support certain causes. In an ideal society, everyone should be able to express himself or herself freely without discrimination or violence. But, as a temporary stop measure to promote the limited LGBT support around the school campus and to extension the Korean society, it's a good start.”
 
The support for the movement isn’t just limited to students at SIS.  There are teachers who adopted the Safe Space logo in SIS and provided positive feedback of the program. “It should be embraced [because] it’s similar to movements like Black Lives Matter in the United States,” claimed Mr. Fischer, a high school English teacher in SIS. He further explained that “groups like GSA brings attention to minority groups that are oftentimes marginalized. So I believe creating a safe space in my own classroom for everyone is important.”

The Black Lives Matter movement was created as an initiative against anti-black racist behaviors. It’s aims are to combat any systematic or intentional racism towards the African American community. Like the Safe Space Program, both of these movements aims to prevent harmful behavior that can physically or physiologically harm people, especially students, due to their different backgrounds.
 
(Mr. Fischer from SIS’s English department, getting interviewed for the article)

Even teachers with more conservative views acknowledged that the Safe Space Program promotes a key issue in school communities: preventing bullying. A teacher from Seoul International School who wished to remain anonymous explained that “I grew up in a Christian family so biblical values are important to me. I personally am not fond of the fact that people have [different] sexual preferences but discriminating against them because of their sexual preference is to me against [Jesus' greatest] commandment [‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’]. I will be supportive of this movement not because I think that being gay is something commendable but just because we all have human rights regardless whether you’re gay or straight.” Clearly the anti-bullying perspective of the Safe Space Program provides a universal cause that teachers from both sides of the LGBTQ issue can come under.

Some of the parents of SIS students seem to take a more neutral view. Mrs. Kim, a mother of a student at SIS who requested her name to be omitted expressed that though she doesn’t believe “there’s anything wrong with [the Safe Space Program]”, she’s worried that “people who are gay might not get along with other people in society.” Furthermore she claimed that “I think it's nice to have a safe space but it might be more important for students to focus on studying rather than things like that.”

However in the end it remains clear that the anti bullying cause resonates with certain parents. “It resembles the anti bullying event that occurs in the elementary school [of SIS]. The introduction of new technology such as SNS and emails can be really detrimental because it can lead to bullying. I strongly believe in anti-bullying causes in SIS because of the harmful mental effects bullying can have [in Korea]. Once learning and education [about anti-bullying] occurs early on it will have a positive effect in the end,” claimed Ms Haewon Lee, a mother of an SIS student. 

Though there hasn’t been any known cases of LGBTQ+ based bullying in SIS, there is also reluctance in the school community to discuss such issues. There are clear benefits for promoting discussion about sexual minorities in certain communities especially for students from international school backgrounds that seeks to go to colleges in America or Europe where issues of sexuality are more openly discussed. Though there is a need to respect the views of different communities and traditions, the safe space program is overall a globally relevant program that has found its activities reaching the classes of SIS.

 
 









Alexander Joonhwan Song
Grade 11
Seoul International School
Copyright © The Herald Insight, All rights reseverd.