More people are in favour of same-sex marriage: Poll

According to a survey conducted by the Executive Yuan’s Gender Equality Committee, nearly 61 percent of Taiwanese feel that same-sex marriage (couple) have the right to marry, up from 37.4 percent in 2018 before the Act for Implementation of Judicial Yuan Interpretation No. 748 went into effect.

The “same-sex marriage act” went into effect on May 24, 2019, after the then-Council of Grand Justices ruled in 2017 that family provisions in the Civil Code were unconstitutional because they violated people’s right to marry as guaranteed in Article 22 of the Civil Code and people’s right to equality as guaranteed in Article 7 of the Constitution.

According to committee data, there were 7,906 same-sex couples registered in Taiwan as of April 30.

The telephone study, which took place from May 4 to May 6, looked at changes in public attitudes toward gender equality, marriage, same-sex marriage, and transgender people. It also assessed the level of support for government policies aimed at improving gender equality.

60.9 percent of respondents believed same-sex couples should be able to legally marry, up from 37.4 percent in 2018, before the act went into effect.

Meanwhile, 71% of respondents believe same-sex couples should be allowed to adopt children, and 71.8 percent believe homosexual couples are equally capable of parenting children as heterosexual couples.

According to the survey, 67 percent of respondents believe that transgender persons include both transgender men and transgender women, and that they frequently dress differently than the gender they were born with, a 5 percentage point increase from last year.

Approximately 77 percent of respondents agreed transgender persons should be free to wear whatever clothes they want to school or work, and 89.4 percent said they would have no problem having transgender coworkers.

Almost 73 percent of respondents disagreed with the assertion that a man’s job is to generate money and a woman’s responsibility is to care for her family, and 78.7 percent said that wives should spend more time doing housework than their husbands.

Furthermore, 91.2 percent believed that women are just as qualified as males to hold senior management positions, while 92 percent disputed that women are unqualified to study science or engineering.

According to the survey, 84.7 percent of respondents agreed with the Executive Yuan’s policy of fostering a welcoming atmosphere for married couples to raise their children.

The Executive Yuan has raised payments for couples undergoing infertility treatment or requesting parental leave since July of last year. Pregnant women now get 14 subsidised antenatal visits, with gestational diabetes mellitus and anaemia added to the list of diseases to be evaluated for during prenatal visits.

The number of people applying for parental leave subsidies in March was up 32% from the same month in 2020, with fathers accounting for 68% of applicants.

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