A majority of Americans believe a person’s gender cannot be changed, according to a new poll, underscoring the public’s complex view of transgender issues.
A new poll released Tuesday by the Pew Research Center says 60% of adults say that “a person’s gender is determined by his or her gender at birth.”
This is a four-point increase from the previous year – 56% in 2021 – and a six-point increase from 54% in 2017.
According to the Pew survey, “no single demographic group is driving this change, and it is more likely to say it is similar to previous years.”
The poll found that 86% of Republicans and leaning Republicans believe that gender is determined by gender at birth, compared with 38% of Democrats and those with Democratic leanings.
However, the survey said that 64 per cent of the respondents would support legislation to protect transgender people from discrimination in jobs, housing and public places. And it noted that “nearly eight in ten American adults say there is at least some discrimination against transgender people in our society.”
The Pew poll comes amid a heated national debate about women’s sport and fairness, sparked by the rise of transgender woman Lia Thomas.
Thomas is now a former swimmer at the University of Pennsylvania, where she set records while competing on the women’s team. Thomas, who previously competed on the men’s team at the school, insists that he has no competitive advantage over his female peers.
The findings of studies on transgender athletes are in line with a recent Washington Post-University of Maryland survey, which found that 58% of Americans believe transgender women should be barred from competing in college or professional sports. needed.
68% of those surveyed agreed that allowing transgender girls to compete against biological girls in youth sports would be beneficial because “transgender girls would have a competitive advantage over other girls.”
According to the survey, a majority of adults – 58% – support policies that require transgender athletes to compete on teams that match the gender they were assigned at birth, not by Those with gender identifiable, compared to 17% who oppose and 24% who have no opinion.
Recently, Louisiana became the 18th state to mandate schools to segregate teams based on biological sex.
