Report of Surveys

Report of Surveys  

We did two surveys on two different websites. Here are the results.

1.     I did a survey where I asked people their thoughts and insights into Gender Issues. I only managed to get 21 responses, but the answers were pretty interesting.

    I mostly got answers from people from Japan, but I also managed to get a few non-Japanese people to participate. 

    I then asked what their gender was. most were female which was 12, then male which was 6, then others which were 3 (Non-Binary, Non-Binary Woman and agender).

    I then asked whether they were interested in the topic of Gender Issues. I was glad to see that the majority said yes (86%), while only 3 people said no (14%). pretty much the same result when I asked whether they've heard gender issues being discussed on the news.

    When I asked how often they heard about gender identity-related news stories in media, the result was pretty interesting. quite surprised to see that most people hear about it once every few months considering how popular the topic is right now.

    Next, I asked what concerns them the most about Gender Identity issues. Most of the answers were about Same-sex marriage, but I also got some pretty interesting results, like how the government is regulating people's gender expression and stripping away people's rights based on their gender identity, or how Non-Binary people are not getting any sort of support or respect by the government.

    I then asked people if they've ever done anything to support Gender Identity-related causes. While most people answered no, I was glad to see that quite a lot of people had done something to help the cause. For example, some people donated and signed petitions to help gender identity-related causes, walked in pride parades and actively participated in volunteering work.

    For the last question, I asked what their overall opinions were on the topic of Gender Identity.

most people stated that personal choice is important and that you should respect all people's life choices and not judge others.  

    Overall, I thought this was a pretty insightful survey! While I did expect a lot of positive answers, there were also some pretty negative answers too, which was sort of surprising? but also not so much? While I respect everyone's opinions, I think it's important for us to respect and not judge people so easily. Gender Identity-related issues may be something new to a lot of people, especially in Japan, but just because it's something you're not used to or because its "abnormal" to you doesn't mean it's OK to dismiss someone because of the way they identify themselves.

2. This survey asked more in-depth questions. 

    According to the survey, not a lot of people discuss LGBT issues, though they would rather discuss these issues with friends rather than with family. 

    Most people didn't have gender/sexual education in school.

    Half of the recipients said that they had never thought about their own gender/sexual identity. 

    Most of the people who are of the gender/sexual minority felt that they didn't want to come out to their parents with the reason that they thought their parents wouldn't believe them. 

    Most people understand that things that don't concern them (same-sex marriage, gender neutral restrooms) should be implemented. 

    People thought gender/sexual identity education was important but they didn't think it would benefit them.

    Answers to controversial questions were split as expected. 

    In my opinion, there weren't many unanticipated answers but the fact that not a lot of people felt comfortable discussing LGBT issues with family members or friends and one person saying it "would be weird" if they did so told me enough about how Japan sees a lot of social issues at taboo. This is seen in the answers for people who don't want to come out to their parents as well. 

    There were several joke-like answers that severely disappointed me since every recipient was a university student who attend a high education school. Answering the question of how often the recipient discuss LGBT issues with "We make fun of LGBT people so very often", is objectively immature and homophobic to say the least. Adding quotations around the word trans when talking about a transgender friend and disregarding their gender, is again, immature and transphobic. Using words like "normal" to describe cisgender or heterosexuality is probably ignorance but that also caught my eye. 

    This survey was very eye opening for multiple reasons but it made me realize, once again, how uneducated a lot of people are on gender and sexual orientation issues. This is why we need gender and sexual identity education.

   survey: https://forms.gle/1cRA7wBhyH5w25ZM8