VietNamNet Bridge - Over 75 percent of respondents said that the homosexuals have the right to pursue happiness, the right to adoption, but only 36 percent supported same-sex marriage.

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For illustration only.

The study "Social attitudes to homosexual people" which was carried out in 2010-2011 with 854 people in Hanoi, Ha Nam, Ho Chi Minh City and An Giang, shows that social understanding of homosexuality is very limited.

Nearly 90 percent of the participants misunderstood little or a lot about the homosexuals and discriminated against them.

Over 75 percent of the respondents were in favor of the rights of homosexuals, especially the rights of living together and adoption. However, only 36 percent supported same-sex marriage.

A 33-year-old woman in Hanoi said: "To be honest, I resist same-sex marriage though they are human and they want to get married. Because marriage is going nowhere and it does not help solving the issue of having children. They get married just to get married, to address physical needs only."

One respondent said: "People who are living in a society have to adapt to make a stable society. You adapt your own feelings, but you have to sacrifice for society. This is not discrimination, it does not! That is the movement on the basis of knowledge to match it."

The reason for this thought, according to Dr. Nguyen Thu Nam, who led the study: "The reason for the majority of people to support the basic rights of homosexuals comes from the support of the Vietnamese society towards the right of people in general. Only when going into the right to marry – which is still the privilege of heterosexuals – it shows that the society still use a single metric for their diversity is the unique heterosexualism."

In the group against same-sex marriage, Associate Professor Phung Trung Tap, from the Hanoi Law University, said that related to same-sex marriage, it is necessary to consider the species.

"A psychoanalyst once said, people with an intellectual, but do not forget the human instinct and the human instinct is to have heterosexual activities which has been maintained for thousands of years. Homosexual marriage is contrary to the social concept but it is not contrary to nature," he said.

According to Tap, the homosexuals have the right to be happy, but at this time in Vietnam, it should not allow them to marry.

"Recognizing same-sex marriage is not based on economic aspect but on the nature of species. Family is the cell of society, including marriage and nurturing relationships. Wherefore standing from the intellectual, cultural, life perspective, the social order of our country today, I think that we should not recognize same-sex marriage at this moment," he added.

Some said that to acknowledge same-sex marriage, it needs to do more research and to analyze the pros and cons. "Respect for human rights must be based on tradition and law," Mr. Hung, representative of a law firm, said.

In contrast, young people strongly voiced support for same-sex marriage. Student Vu Phuong Linh from the Hanoi National University countered: "If based on the species and the ability to have children to ban same-sex marriage, we should ban infertile and old people from getting married because they cannot maintain race."

She emphasized that the homosexuals account for only a small part of society, so allowing them to get married cannot make the humans to be perished. "Here, we just need to emphasize emotions," Phuong Linh said.

In late November, the report of the joint working team (with the participation of the Government Office, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, the Ministry of Justice, etc.) on the inadequacies of the Civil Code and the Law on Marriage and Family proposed to research on marriage registration for same-sex couples.

Compiled by Mai Lan