A new national survey of Asian Americans revealed that Korean Americans were the most strongly opposed to same-sex marriage of all Asian ethnic groups.
Seventy-three percent of Korean Americans were opposed to LGBT marriage rights, compared with 53 percent opposed for all Asian Americans. In addition, 51 percent of Korean Americans were “strongly opposed” to same-sex marriages.
The National Asian American Survey (NAAS) published their findings on April 29. They polled 3,034 Asian Americans in the second half of 2012. The principal investigators were Karthick Ramakrishnan, associate professor at U.C. Riverside, and Taeku Lee, a professor at U.C. Berkeley.
Of all Asian Americans, just 34 percent were in favor of gay marriage rights. Japanese Americans were the only group who had a majority in favor, at 51 percent. The Chinese were slightly more opposed (49 percent) than in favor (41 percent).
Along with Koreans, Filipino and Vietnamese Americans were also opposed to gay marriage rights above the overall average.
One interesting thing to note from the survey was that Korean Americans were in support of affirmative action (84 percent), despite those in the community who believe that some Korean American students are at a disadvantage when it comes to the college admissions process.
