ON THE RISE: About 52.3 percent of respondents said they would accept that their child was gay, which was up from 49.2 percent in a similar survey from last year
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By Sherry Hsiao / Staff reporter
Taiwanese are less willing to “accept” that their child is gay than they are to accept learning that a relative or colleague is gay, a survey released yesterday by the Taiwan Equality Campaign found.
The survey, aimed at gauging social attitudes on same-sex marriage and LGBTQ+ rights among people aged 18 and older from across the nation, showed that 52.3 percent of respondents said they could accept learning that their child is gay, up from 49.2 percent in a similar survey last year, the LGBT advocacy group said.
That level of acceptance was the lowest among several scenarios presented in the survey about learning that people around them were gay, the group said.
About 72.2 percent said they could accept that a colleague or classmate was gay, while 68.7 percent could accept a teacher or superior being gay and 68.5 percent could accept a relative being gay.
The results showed that 64.2 percent of respondents said they could accept learning a city or county councilor or a legislator representing their electoral district is- gay, while 61.1 percent said they could accept learning that their mayor, county commissioner or president is gay.
The survey also found that 59 percent of people support the adoption of children by same-sex married couples, up from 56.8 percent in a similar survey last year.
About 36.8 percent of respondents said they did not support such adoptions.
A total of 44.8 percent of respondents support allowing same-sex married couples to have children through artificial reproduction, up from 42.1 percent last year, the group said.
Fifty-six percent of respondents supported transnational same-sex marriages, a 2.2 percent increase from last year, it said.
Compared with the results of last year’s poll, this year’s survey shows that overall, society is becoming more friendly and accepting of LGBTQ+ people, group executive director Jennifer Lu (呂欣潔) told an online news conference.
Many people worry that their LGBT children would be treated unfairly, which is why the nation should work toward gender equality, independent Legislator Freddy Lim (林昶佐) said.
Society and ideas about respect for all people are always improving, he said, urging parents not to view the process of learning about their children’s sexuality as negative.
The survey’s release coincides with the two-year anniversary of the implementation of the nation’s same-sex marriage legislation, the group said.
The survey, carried out by Trend Survey and Research Co through telephone interviews from May 6 to 9, collected 1,096 valid responses and has a margin of error of 3 percentage points.
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