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.
ANOTHER EMERGES: The CWA yesterday said this year’s fourth storm of the typhoon season had formed in the South China Sea, but was not expected to affect Taiwan Tropical Storm Gaemi has intensified slightly as it heads toward Taiwan, where it is expected to affect the country in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 8am yesterday, the 120km-radius storm was 800km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost tip, moving at 9kph northwest, the agency said. A sea warning for Gaemi could be issued tonight at the earliest, it said, adding that the storm is projected to be closest to Taiwan on Wednesday or Thursday. Gaemi’s potential effect on Taiwan remains unclear, as that would depend on its direction, radius and intensity, forecasters said. Former Weather Forecast
As COVID-19 cases in Japan have been increasing for 10 consecutive weeks, people should get vaccinated before visiting the nation, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said. The centers reported 773 hospitalizations and 124 deaths related to COVID-19 in Taiwan last week. CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Director Guo Hung-wei (郭宏偉) on Tuesday said the number of weekly COVID-19 cases reported in Japan has been increasing since mid-May and surpassed 55,000 cases from July 8 to July 14. The average number of COVID-19 patients at Japan’s healthcare facilities that week was also 1.39 times that of the week before and KP.3 is the dominant
The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) working group for Taiwan-related policies is likely to be upgraded to a committee-level body, a report commissioned by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said. As Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is increasingly likely to upgrade the CCP’s Central Leading Group for Taiwan Affairs, Taiwanese authorities should prepare by researching Xi and the CCP, the report said. At the third plenary session of the 20th Central Committee of the CCP, which ended on Thursday last week, the party set a target of 2029 for the completion of some tasks, meaning that Xi is likely preparing to
US-CHINA TRADE DISPUTE: Despite Beijing’s offer of preferential treatment, the lure of China has dimmed as Taiwanese and international investors move out Japan and the US have become the favored destinations for Taiwanese graduates as China’s attraction has waned over the years, the Ministry of Labor said. According to the ministry’s latest income and employment advisory published this month, 3,215 Taiwanese university graduates from the class of 2020 went to Japan, surpassing for the first time the 2,881 graduates who went to China. A total of 2,300 graduates from the class of 2021 went to the US, compared with the 2,262 who went to China, the document showed. The trend continued for the class of 2023, of whom 1,460 went to Japan, 1,334 went to