Q7, 8 How people feel about same-sex marriage?
I searched information mainly from poll conducted by CNN. According to the poll, I found that many Americans supports recognition of same-sex marriage now. While 51 ％ of the 824 Americans states that same-sex marriage should be recognized by the law as valid in the same way as heterosexual marriage, 47 ％ of people oppose the idea. Also the answer is different by generation and gender.
・Gender gap
more than half of men…oppose
57 ％ of women…support
・Generation gap (the rate of people who support same-sex marriage)
from 18- to 34-year-old…this group show high levels of support though CNN didn’t survey this time.
60 ％ of people under 50-year-old…support
40 ％ of people over 50-year-old…support
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_opinion_of_same-sex_marriage_in_the_United_States)
(http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2011/04/19/poll-more-americans-favor-same-sex-marriage/)
It seems to be difficult to find the results of a poll that measures the public support for same-sex marriage in JAPAN, even though such surveys are quite common in the US, Europe, and even in Latin America. I suppose it's significant that few, if any, polls have been done in Japan on that issue. I read a story on the Reuters news site which noted that there was a gay and lesbian parade in Tokyo last year for the first time in three years. In explaining why there was a gap of three years since the last parade, it was mentioned that it has been impossible to get enough people who will admit they're gay and serve on the staff of the parade. This shows that activism is difficult if gay and lesbian people are so afraid of the social stigma that they fear coming out as a community. You can find the story "Japan's gay community parades for first time in 3 years" at:
返信削除http://www.reuters.com/article/2010/08/14/us-japan-gay-idUSTRE67D0NH20100814 .