DESPITE the furor over boxing champ and congressman Manny Pacquiao’s statement that gay couples were “worse than animals,” most Filipinos cling to anti-homosexual views, the latest The Standard Poll shows.
The nationwide poll conducted by The Standard’s resident pollster Junie Laylo, surveyed 3,000 registered voters from Feb. 24 to March 1. It has a margin of error of ± 1.8 percent on national figures.
Across the country, 62 percent said same-sex relationships were either somewhat not acceptable or not at all acceptable. The unacceptability was even higher for same-sex marriage at 70 percent, and for homosexual acts at 74 percent.
Acceptability of same-sex relationships was highest in Metro Manila at 36 percent; followed by Northern and Central Luzon, 29 percent; Southern Luzon and Bicol, 26 percent; Visayas, 26 percent;; and Mindanao, 18 percent.
Thirty-one percent of respondents from urban areas said same-sex relationships were acceptable, but only— 21 percent of rural dwellers held the same view.
Twelve percent of respondents nationwide said they were undecided about how they regarded same-sex relationships.
Fewer respondents were accepting of same-sex marriages. Metro Manila respondents showed the highest acceptability at 30 percent, but the numbers went down to 20 percent in Northern and Central Luzon, 18 percent in South Luzon and Bicol, 17 percent in the Visayas and 12 percent in Mindanao.
Among respondents from urban areas, 23 percent find same-sex marriage acceptable; only 14 percent of their rural counterparts said the same.
On the issue of marriage, the same percentage of respondents—12 percent—were as undecided as they were on same-sex relationships.
Still fewer respondents were accepting of homosexual acts. Twenty-five percent of respondents from the National Capital Region said these were either very acceptable or somewhat acceptable, but the percentage went down to 15 percent in South Luzon and Bicol, 13 percent in the Visayas, 12 percent in Northern and Central Luzon and 9 percent in Mindanao.
With 13 percent of respondents undecided on how they regarded homosexual acts, the percentage of those surveyed who said these were either somewhat not acceptable or not at all acceptable were in the 70s or high 60s with the exception of Metro Manila at 61 percent.
Homosexual acts were deemed unacceptable by 69 percent of respondents from urban areas; 78 percent of respondents from rural areas said the same.