Changing Attitudes Toward Homosexuality in Taiwan, 1995-2012

Most of what we know about attitudes toward homosexuality comes from research focused on Europe and the Americas. Much less is known about attitudinal change in East Asia, even though some nations have begun to propose liberal laws and policies regarding homosexuality. Focusing on Taiwan, a more lib...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inChinese sociological review Vol. 48; no. 4; pp. 317 - 345
Main Authors Cheng, Yen-hsin Alice, Wu, Fen-Chieh Felice, Adamczyk, Amy
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Armonk Routledge 01.10.2016
M. E. Sharpe Inc
Subjects
Attitudes
Christianity
Christians
Divorce
Gender roles
Homosexuality
Prostitution
Religion
Resistance
Sex differences
Tolerance
Taiwan
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Summary:Most of what we know about attitudes toward homosexuality comes from research focused on Europe and the Americas. Much less is known about attitudinal change in East Asia, even though some nations have begun to propose liberal laws and policies regarding homosexuality. Focusing on Taiwan, a more liberal and economically developed society, this study examines key characteristics associated with changes in attitudes about homosexuality. Data from three waves of the World Values Survey collected in 1995, 2006, and 2012 are used. The findings show that overall social tolerance has increased, which is mainly due to cohort succession and partly to intra-cohort changes in attitudes. Improvement in education and liberal values related to divorce, prostitution, and gender roles act as mediators for the cohort differences in tolerance. In addition, women and the college-educated hold more liberal attitudes toward homosexuals than men or the least educated in recent years. Christians were not especially intolerant toward homosexuality in 1995, but became significantly less tolerant than other religions by 2012, which is likely due to a resistance to attitudinal changes for the Christian community.
ISSN:2162-0555
2162-0563
DOI:10.1080/21620555.2016.1199257