Several high schools yesterday held simulated referendums, which showed that most students support advancing LGBT rights.
Tomorrow is to be the first time 18 and 19-year-olds can vote in referendums.
To encourage more young people to take part, 23 high schools held simulated referendums on their campuses based on Central Election Commission voting procedures.
The referendums to phase out thermal power plants, stop all construction of coal-fired power plants and keep a ban on food products imported from Japanese prefectures affected by the 2011 Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear disaster each received affirmative votes from about 70 percent of students, according to the results from Taipei Municipal Jianguo High School, Taipei First Girls’ High School, National Tainan First Senior High School and Kaohsiung Municipal Kaohsiung Senior High School.
However, students were split down the middle on the referendums to rename the national sports team “Taiwan” for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and to scrap the government’s plan to phase out nuclear power.
A referendum to keep the definition of marriage as between a man and a woman and another to ban LGBT education at elementary and junior-high schools received considerably more “no” than “yes” votes.
Similarly, two referendums advocating the opposite stances received far more “yes” than “no” votes, showing that most 18-year-olds support the advancement of LGBT rights.
However, a referendum that proposes establishing a special law to protect the rights of same-sex couples living together received support from 40 percent of the students.
It is the only referendum related to LGBT rights for which the students did not have a clear preference.
Event organizer representative Peng Cheng (彭宬) said that the results were preliminary, and the aggregated results of all participating schools would be announced later.
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