Americans Find Changing Gender Morally Wrong, Says Gallup Poll
A thin majority finds transitioning morally wrong, while a larger majority opposes bans on gender-affirming care for minors.
According to polling data recently released by Gallup, a razor-thin majority of Americans continue to believe changing one’s gender is morally wrong.
The same data, from Gallup’s annual Values and Beliefs poll, conducted in May, show a substantial majority of Americans are opposed to bans on gender-affirming care for minors.
While this polling is relatively in line with data from since 2021, the independent Trans Legislation Tracker shows a clear increase in anti-Trans legislation starting in 2020, with 85 bills, versus 32 in 2019 and 155 in 2021.
For 2024, the Tracker tallies 617 bills.
Exploring the disconnect between majorities ascribing a negative moral component to gender transitioning, yet opposing bans on gender-affirming care for minors, Gallup notes, “This discrepancy could be because the questions about gender-affirming care specifically mention minors, while the question about the morality of changing one’s gender does not.
“In addition, the relatively low support for banning laws on gender-affirming care may be attributable to Americans’ general distaste for bans, a pattern that can be seen in Gallup trends on banning cigarette smoking and handguns.”
Rising transphobia seems clearer when looking at YouGov polling from 2015, showing that a slight majority of Americans did not link gender identity and morality at the time.
Nine years ago, YouGov found 53% of Americans believed being Transgender to be either “morally acceptable” or “not a moral issue.”
Last year, covering the rising legislative animosity by the GOP toward the Transgender community, USA Today spoke with Z Nicolazzo, a professor of Trans Studies in Education at the University of Arizona.
“Even bills that had been knocked down or not approved in state legislatures one, two, three years ago, are being reintroduced,” she said. “I think what we can know is that the Right is just not going to stop.”
View the poll results below:
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