As Taiwan approaches the one-year anniversary of its legalization of same-sex marriage on May 24, the results of a survey released yesterday showed that nearly 93 percent of Taiwanese say that the policy has had no effect on them.
Equal Love Taiwan — a coalition of five LGBT rights organizations — announced at a news conference the results of the survey it conducted on the Taiwanese public’s attitude toward a range of issues affecting the LGBT community.
The survey found that 92.8 percent of respondents had not been affected by the legalization of same-sex marriage, while 3.7 percent cited negative effects, 1.8 percent cited positive effects and 1.7 percent had no opinion on the matter.
Photo: CNA
In terms of the policy’s effects on Taiwanese society, 50.1 percent said that there had been no effect, while 28.4 percent said that the effect was negative, while 11.9 percent said that it was positive and 9.6 percent expressed no opinion.
The survey also revealed relatively mixed opinions on issues relating to children.
A total of 56.8 percent of respondents said that they favored allowing same-sex couples to adopt children, compared with 38.4 against, but 50.1 percent were opposed to allowing them to have children using artificial reproductive technologies, while 42.1 percent were in favor.
On the issue of social acceptance, more than 65 percent of those surveyed said they could accept learning that a family member, classmate or coworker identified as homosexual.
However, 49.2 percent said that they could accept learning that their own child was gay, while 47.3 percent said that it would be “difficult to accept.”
Asked about public displays of affection, 74.1 percent of respondents said that they could accept seeing heterosexual couples kiss in public, compared with only 48.2 percent for same-sex couples.
The survey also found that 53 percent of the respondents would accept their child learning about LGBT-related topics in school, even though a November 2018 referendum on including LGBT education in Taiwan’s elementary and junior-high school curricula was defeated by a 66 percent to 34 percent margin.
The survey results came nearly one year after Taiwan became the first nation in Asia to legalize same-sex marriage on May 24 last year.
Although LGBT rights advocates welcomed the passage of the Enforcement Act of Judicial Yuan Constitutional Interpretation No. 748 (司法院釋字第748號解釋施行法), they have also criticized it for failing to provide equal adoption rights and for not recognizing marriages to foreigners whose countries do not allow same-sex marriage.
Meanwhile, same-sex marriage opponents have said that the policy lacks popular support, citing the results of a November 2018 referendum in which voters chose to uphold the concept of marriage as being between a man and a woman.
The Equal Love Taiwan survey was conducted by telephone from April 29 to May 2 and collected 1,086 valid responses from people aged 18 and older. It has a margin of error of 3 percentage points.
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