Trans people find more acceptance with women and young people, survey finds
A new poll has revealed that trans Americans may find more acceptance from women and young people.
The survey by Reuters/Ipsos showed that 60% of people aged 18-29 favour allowing trans people to use the bathroom of their gender identity, compared to the reverse for over 60s.
Almost half of all women (44%) agree that someone who is transitioning should be able to use the facilities they identify with. However, only 39% of men felt the same.
Overall, the public are almost evenly split over the issue with 43% believing that people should only use bathrooms based on biological sex and 41% on gender identity.
The poll also found that 92% of participants had heard of the term transgender. Along political lines, 57% who identified as Democrat favoured allowing people to use bathrooms based on gender identity, compared to 23% who claimed to be Republican.
Paisley Currah, a professor at Brooklyn College and author on trans issues, told Reuters that advocates should see the results of the poll as encouraging.
“Gender identity is a pretty new term for a lot of people so having effectively an even split on the bathroom question is a very good result,” he said.
“The gay rights movement in the last few years moved very quickly and I feel like the transgender movement is moving at even greater speed.”
The debate is currently splitting political opinion throughout the United States, with places such as North Carolina and Mississippi attacking the LGBT community and other states defending it.
This split reflected in the poll, with New England and the North East most accepting of trans people. The South, South East and South West, were least accepting.
It was also found that people who regularly attended church were twice as likely to agree with North Carolina’s anti-LGBT law than those who don’t.
