Support in Hong Kong for Same-sex Couples’ Rights Grew Over Ten Years (2013-2023): 60 Percent Now Support Same-Sex Marriage

Abstract

Over the past ten years, the share of Hong Kong people who favour protecting gay and lesbian rights has grown markedly. In 2013, only a minority of Hong Kong people surveyed said that same-sex couples should be permitted to marry (38%). Just over half of people expressed agreement with same-sex marriage (50.4%) in 2017. By 2023, 60% agreed with same-sex marriage; only 17% said they did not support same-sex marriage, and 23% were neutral.

These findings are based on telephone surveys we conducted in 2013, 2017, and 2023. During these three waves of data collection, interviewers asked respondents the same questions. This report examines changes in public opinion by comparing data from the three survey waves. Our study is the longest running research project to track public opinion concerning same-sex marriage using representative samples of Hong Kong residents.

In addition to asking questions about same-sex marriage, our surveys asked about same-sex couples’ rights related to specific issues, including hospital visitation, housing discrimination, fatal accidents, and property inheritance. In 2013, a majority of Hong Kong people already favoured same-sex couples’ rights in each of these areas, and those numbers grew by 2017. In 2023, we found that only a small minority of Hong Kong people (about 8-12%) disagreed that same-sex couples should have rights in these areas of life. From 2013 to 2023, there was a statistically significant increase in the percentage of people who agreed that same-sex couples should have rights in each of these areas.

In 2023, 85% of Hong Kong people said that same-sex couples should have at least some of the rights enjoyed by different-sex couples, compared with 78% in 2017 and 73% in 2013. In addition, 71% of people in 2023 said that Hong Kong should have a law to protect against sexual orientation discrimination, compared with 69% in 2017 and 58% in 2013. A strikingly small percentage of people in 2023—only 6%—disagreed with having such legislation.

We also found, when asking a general question about social acceptance, that the share of Hong Kong people who said they were unaccepting of gay men and lesbians dropped nearly 20 percentage points between 2013 and 2023 (from 32% to 13%).

Keywords: Hong Kong, Same-Sex, Sexual Orientation, Public Opinion, Marriage, Gay, Lesbian, Tongzhi