Fewer than half of the respondents in a new poll said that they thought it was “acceptable” for Santa Claus to be depicted as gay.
A YouGov poll asked 1714 adults in the U.K. whether they thought it would be acceptable or unacceptable for Santa to be depicted as being of a certain identity, like Black, Middle Eastern, female, or gay.
23% of people said that it’s “unacceptable” to portray St. Nick as Black, 22% said the same about a Middle Eastern Santa, and 41% said that it’s unacceptable to portray Santa as gay. The most unacceptable identity for Santa, though, was female, with 54% of respondents.
Only 39% of people said it was “acceptable” for Santa to be gay, and 27% said it was “acceptable” for Santa to be a woman. About 50% of people said it was acceptable for Santa to be portrayed as part of any ethnic group other than white, and 80% said it was acceptable for Santa to be white.