Only half of Brits would feel ‘comfortable’ with a transgender GP or prime minister
People at the National Transgender Visibility March 2019. (Twitter/NYCPride)
Only half of Brits say they would be “comfortable” being treated by a transgender GP.
A poll by Ipsos MORI revealed that 51 per cent of Britons would feel “comfortable” if their doctor was trans, while 22 per cent would feel “uncomfortable.”
Forty-seven per cent say they would be comfortable with a future prime minister who is transgender, compared to 21 per cent who would be uncomfortable.
Nearly one in five (18 per cent) say they would be uncomfortable having a close friend or relative who is transgender, while 22 per cent would be uncomfortable if a close friend or relative was in a relationship with a transgender person.
The poll underlines the systemic discrimination still faced by transgender people, who are under-represented in public life in the UK, with a grand total of zero trans people ever elected to parliament.
Unsurprisingly, young people are far more accepting than older generations – with 68 per cent of Gen Z respondents comfortable having a transgender friend or relative, compared to only 49 per cent of Boomers.
Poll confirms findings that women are more likely to support transgender rights.
The fresh poll also corroborates PinkNews' findings that women are more likely to support transgender rights and see trans people's identities of valid – with 59 per cent of women agreeing that gender identity can be distinct from biological sex, compared to 49 per cent of men.
Women are also much more supportive of trans people's rights to use public facilities that match their gender identity, the poll confirms.
Although trans people still face significant social barriers in the UK, there is little widespread support for extremist efforts to roll back their rights. Just one in four people (25 per cent) believe that trans people should not be able to use facilities that match their gender identity, and only 19 per cent say that "transgender rights have gone too far in Britain".
Trans community awaits onslaught from equalities minister.
The polling comes the week that equalities minister Liz Truss was expected to formally announce a plan to roll back trans rights – though it is unclear when an announcement is likely to come.
Equalities minister Liz Truss is set to launch a rollback of transgender rights (Photo by TOLGA AKMEN/AFP via Getty Images)
Hannah Shrimpton, associate director at Ipsos MORI, said: "This is a changing landscape – the wider societal trend has been one of growing liberality on a number of issues including gender, gender identity and LGBTQ+.
"These shifts are partly driven by generational differences and we can see in this survey that there is greater support and acceptance of transgender people among the young."
Last week a poll commissioned by PinkNews found that most women are in favour of trans people self-identifying as a gender other than which they were assigned at birth.
Only 21 per cent of women said they were against trans people self-identifying, despite an oft-repeated narrative in the British media that trans rights and women's rights are in "conflict."
