A poll suggested that LGTBQ people who are open about their sexual orientation are more likely to take care of elderly family members, and accepting one’s sexual orientation is key to better family relations, LGBTQ rights advocates said.
Fewer than 10 percent of Taiwanese LGBTQ respondents have thought about receiving long-term care from family members and fewer than 20 percent said they would take care of family members, the Taiwan Tongzhi Hotline Association said on Monday at a news conference in Taipei.
Although more than 90 percent of respondents said they were “out of the closet,” only 20 to 30 percent have told parents about their sexual orientation, the association said.
Photo: Chiu Chih-jou, Taipei Times
According to the poll, 41 percent of respondents who are openly queer said that they have provided care for family members, while 28 percent of those who are not openly LGBTQ have provided care for family members, it said.
Of openly-queer respondents, 60 percent said providing care for family members could lead to conflict with them, while 80 percent of the other group voiced the same concern, the association said.
On the other hand, 30 percent of the openly-queer respondents said they were not saving any funds or did not buy any insurance with the future in mind, while 43 percent of not-open respondents did so, it said.
Among the openly-gay respondents, 67 percent said that they have discussed with their parents a possible caregiving or funerary arrangements, while 50 percent of the other group said they had, it said.
Eighty percent of female poll respondents and 55 percent of male respondents expressed a preference to be taken care of by people of the same sex, the association said.
Not-open LGBTQ people are far more likely to have experienced strife in their family life, leading to negative effects on the quality and availability of long-term care for the parties concerned, it said.
The survey could not successfully collect significant data on older Taiwanese LGBTQ people, who tend to be reticent after suffering from a lifetime of discrimination, it said in a call on the government to consider aging LGBTQ people in long-term care policies.
The Internet poll, which was conducted from March to May, had 1,060 valid responses with a margin of error of 3 percentage points.
Only 6.5 percent of respondents were over 50 years of age, the association said.
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