Fifty-one percent of Americans say it is “morally wrong” for someone to change gender, according to a poll released Friday by Gallup, which also revealed that the majority of Americans oppose banning gender-affirming care for women. minors.
The findings, from a Gallup survey held in May, suggest contrasting views among the American public.
“A small majority of Americans believe that changing gender is morally wrong. However, the majority also oppose laws that prohibit gender-affirming care to help minors align with their gender identity,” said Megan Brenan, research consultant at Gallup, in an article about the poll. “This discrepancy may be due to the fact that the questions about gender-affirming care specifically mention minors, while the question about the morality of changing gender does not.”
“Furthermore, the relatively low support for bans on gender-affirming care laws can be attributed to Americans’ general distaste for bans, a pattern that can be seen in Gallup trends on cigarette smoking and handgun bans. fire,” continued Brenan.
The survey found that 44% of Americans say a person changing gender is “morally acceptable.”
Sixty-one percent of respondents oppose laws that would prohibit “psychological support, hormonal treatments and medical surgeries that help transgender individuals align with their gender identity.”
Sixty-two percent would oppose banning medical treatments and procedures for minors that involve gender-affirming care.
The survey comes at a time when more than 90% of transgender teens live in states that have proposed or passed anti-transgender laws, according to an April report from the Williams Institute at the University of California, Los Angeles. Right-wing attacks on transgender health care have also increased, as states like Wyoming have recently banned gender-affirming care for minors.
“For the second year in a row, hundreds of bills affecting transgender youth were introduced in state legislatures,” said Elana Redfield, director of federal policy at the Williams Institute and lead author of the report, in a press release. “The divergent legal landscape has created a profound divide in the rights and protections of transgender youth and their families across the country.”
The Gallup poll was conducted between May 1 and May 23, with 1,024 adults and a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 4 percentage points at a 95 percent confidence level. The half sample consists of 512 people and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 6 percentage points.
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