More than 50 percent of respondents to a recent poll said they support same-sex marriage in Taiwan, according to a rights group.
Fifty-three percent of respondents said they support the legalization of gay marriage, while 37 percent are against it and 10 percent declined to express an opinion, the results of the poll conducted by the Taiwan Alliance to Promote Civil Partnership Rights showed.
The poll also showed that only 25 percent of respondents would have supported gay marriage a decade ago, while 55 percent would have opposed it and 20 percent would have had no opinion on it.
This change in public opinion has been influenced by international developments, said Allen Li (李瑞中), a research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of Sociology.
More than 10 countries have legalized same-sex marriage since 2001 and the US Supreme Court struck down a federal law in June that recognizes lawful marriages as being only between a man and a woman, said Li, who was commissioned by the alliance to carry out research on the poll.
He said that of the Taiwanese that have changed their attitudes toward gay marriage in a positive direction, many are younger and better educated with no strong religious beliefs.
A further analysis of the poll’s results shows that about 55 percent of non-religious people, adherents to folk religions and Buddhists in Taiwan approve of gay marriage, while the approval rate is about 25 percent for Catholics and Christians.
The alliance’s secretary-general, Chien Chih-chieh (簡至潔), said same-sex couples can be good parents and build well-functioning families just like heterosexual couples.
The poll, conducted by telephone between June 20 and July 9, collected 627 valid samples and had a margin of error of 3.9 percentage points.
Meanwhile, the alliance is to propose a draft amendment to the Civil Code in September, and will seek lawmakers’ support for the proposal, which incorporates the issues of gay marriage, the civil partnership system, adoption and multi-person households.
It will also stage a Taiwanese-style marriage banquet in front of the Presidential Office on Sept. 7 to promote the legalization of gay marriage.
The alliance is seeking more than 1,000 people to participate in the banquet.
Taiwan is considered one of the more liberal countries in Asia on homosexuality and hosts one of the largest gay pride parades in the region each year.
The Ministry of Justice commissioned a study on same-sex marriages in Germany, France and Canada last year to better understand if such unions should be legalized in Taiwan.
A poll conducted by the Chinese-language United Daily News in September last year, which surveyed 1,084 people, showed that 55 percent of respondents supported revisions of the law to allow same-sex marriage, compared with 37 percent who opposed such moves.
However, the poll also showed that 61 percent of respondents could not accept it if their children were gay, while 37 percent said they could.
China has reserved offshore airspace in the Yellow Sea and East China Sea from March 27 to May 6, issuing alerts usually used to warn of military exercises, although no such exercises have been announced, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported yesterday. Reserving such a large area for 40 days without explanation is an “unusual step,” as military exercises normally only last a few days, the paper said. These alerts, known as Notice to Air Missions (Notams), “are intended to inform pilots and aviation authorities of temporary airspace hazards or restrictions,” the article said. The airspace reserved in the alert is
NAMING SPAT: The foreign ministry called on Denmark to propose an acceptable solution to the erroneous nationality used for Taiwanese on residence permits Taiwan has revoked some privileges for Danish diplomatic staff over a Danish permit that lists “Taiwan” as “China,” Eric Huang (黃鈞耀), head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Department of European Affairs, told a news conference in Taipei yesterday. Reporters asked Huang whether the Danish government had responded to the ministry’s request that it correct the nationality on Danish residence permits of Taiwanese, which has been listed as “China” since 2024. Taiwan’s representative office in Denmark continues to communicate with the Danish government, and the ministry has revoked some privileges previously granted to Danish representatives in Taiwan and would continue to review
The first bluefin tuna of the season, brought to shore in Pingtung County and weighing 190kg, was yesterday auctioned for NT$10,600 (US$333.5) per kilogram, setting a record high for the local market. The auction was held at the fish market in Donggang Fishing Harbor, where the Siaoliouciou Island-registered fishing vessel Fu Yu Ching No. 2 delivered the “Pingtung First Tuna” it had caught for bidding. Bidding was intense, and the tuna was ultimately jointly purchased by a local restaurant and a local company for NT$10,600 per kilogram — NT$300 ,more than last year — for a total of NT$2.014 million. The 67-year-old skipper
China has reserved offshore airspace over the Yellow Sea and East China Sea from March 27 to May 6, issuing alerts that are usually used to warn of military exercises, although no such exercises have been announced, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on Sunday. Reserving such a large area for 40 days without explanation is an “unusual step,” as military exercises normally only last a few days, the paper said. The alerts, known as notice to air missions (NOTAMs), “are intended to inform pilots and aviation authorities of temporary airspace hazards or restrictions,” the article said. The airspace reserved in the alert
RSS