A recent poll reveals an increase in public support for legislation that limits transgender restroom access amid nationwide attacks on trans rights.
A Wednesday survey released by the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) found that 47% of Americans support bills restricting the locker rooms, bathrooms, and changing areas trans people are permitted to use in schools and public spaces. That result represents a 12% increase since 2016, the year that North Carolina passed its infamous House Bill 2. The since-repealed legislation was a major disaster for the state, leading to billions in potential economic losses and the governor who signed it, Republican Pat McCrory, being voted out of office.
The authors attribute the increase in support for limiting trans restroom access to a decrease in the number of people saying that they have no opinion on the issue. Five years ago, 12% of respondents had not made up their minds on the subject, compared to only 2% by the current survey.
But a major difference between 2016 and 2021 is the growing anti-trans legislative climate in the United States. This has been a record year for anti-trans legislation across the United States, as the GOP attempts to exploit trans rights as a wedge issue ahead of the 2022 midterm elections. In May, Tennessee became the first state since North Carolina to sign a bathroom bill into law, and more than two dozen states have sought to limit trans youth access to gender-affirming health care and restrict trans girls from participating in school sports.
Laws preventing transgender student athletes from participating on sports teams in accordance with their gender have already been passed this year in states like Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Mississippi, and Montana, and even more are still being pushed. Texas could be on the verge of passing an anti-trans sports ban during its third special session of the year, after previous attempts at targeting transgender youth failed.
The influx of anti-trans bills also appears to correlate with a decrease in overall support for affirming trans participation in athletics. About 61% of respondents told PRRI that they are opposed to allowing transgender girls to compete on women’s sports teams in school, while only 36% said that gender identity alone should determine participation. This is a steep decline from 2018, when exactly half of Americans — 50% — said they supported transgender student athletes being recognized by their gender identity.
These findings appear to conflict with PRRI polling indicating that Americans are supportive of LGBTQ+ equality overall:
82% of Americans support proposals like the Equality Act, a 10% increase since 2015. That landmark bill, which has stalled in the Senate due to Republican opposition, would ban discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity areas like housing, education, and public accomodations.
Further complicating the results is polling indicating that Americans are increasingly accepting of trans friends and community members. Nearly 7 in 10 respondents (69%) said they would feel “very” or “somewhat” comfortable if a close friend came out to them as transgender, a 6% uptick since 2019. Nearly equal numbers of Americans said they would be “very” or “somewhat” comfortable with having a trans person in their religious community (69%) or a trans teacher at their local elementary school (65%).
Americans were most supportive of having a transgender colleague in the workplace: Three-quarters of respondents (75%) said they would be very or somewhat comfortable with a trans coworker.
While these contrasting findings may inspire pessimism, it’s unclear if they will correlate to support for legislation singling out trans people for discrimination. A May survey from Gallup found that 62% of Americans believe trans athletes should compete on the team that aligns with the sex they were assigned at birth, but an April survey from NPR, PBS NewsHour, and Marist found people were largely hesitant to legislate the issue. In that poll, 67% of respondents opposed laws limiting trans youth sports participation, preferring the issue to be left up to individual school districts.
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