Explaining Support for Same-Sex Marriage: Evidence from Taiwan

Abstract

What explains Taiwan’s vacillating support for same-sex marriage? Despite earlier favourable public opinion and a Constitutional Court decision in 2017 in favour of legalisation, anti-lgbt referendums in 2018 found overwhelming support. We argue that the framing of same-sex marriage as undermining traditional family structures allowed opponents to shift the national discussion on legalisation. Our results suggest that supporters and the Tsai administration may have overestimated the extent to which opinions on legalisation were firm.