While moral debates persist, a majority stand against legislative bans on gender-affirming treatments for minors.
A Country Divided
The United States of America has long been known as a country divided. The topic of transgender rights and gender-affirming care is no exception for a hot debate among American citizens.
Recent data from Gallup’s latest polls show that 51% of Americans believe that changing one’s gender is not morally right.
This is compared to 44% of Americans who believe that it is a morally acceptable decision to make.
But, regardless of the moral split, more than 6 in 10 American adults do not support creating legislative bans on gender-affirming care for transgender youth.
The moral vs. legislative split goes to show how complex this debate has become.
The U.S. District Court in Florida recently shut down the state’s attempted ban on medical treatments for transgender minors and declared it unconstitutional.
Meanwhile, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Alabama voted to uphold their own laws banning transgender treatment for minors called the Vulnerable Child Compassion and Protection Act.
American opinions on gender-affirming care for minors are very fragmented across the two sides of the aisle.
Liberal and Democratic Stance
Recent data shows that 81% of political liberals and 72% of Democrats do not find any moral issue with the care.
Additionally, 67% of the religiously unaffiliated and 59% of infrequent churchgoers do not morally object to gender-affirming care.
The same trends can be seen in young adults (56%) and college graduates (53%).
The conservative, religious, and older generations land on the opposite end of this spectrum, believing gender-affirming care is immoral.
Women voters are quite split on the issue, shockingly more fragmented than male voters.
Current data shows that 48% of female voters believe that changing one’s gender is morally acceptable, while 39% do not. Regardless of their moral standing on the issue of transgender healthcare for minors, the majority of Americans do not support legislative bans on the care.
Gender-Affirming Care
Gender-affirming care, which includes both psychological counseling and various medical therapies, has taken center stage in swing states as the election looms near.
As of now, 25 states have laws or policies that restrict transgender minor’s access to life-saving care.
It is also important to note that many of these states are now undergoing legal challenges on laws as advocacy and human rights groups fight back.
Values and Beliefs Poll
The survey conducted by Gallup, called the annual Values and Beliefs Poll, asked the public about the bans in two different ways.
First, they asked what citizens thought about bans specifically on “treatments and medical procedures” while the other question was phrased to include “psychological support, hormonal treatments, and medical surgeries”.
Results did not vary too much between the two questions, showing that only ⅓ of U.S. adults support the legislative bans.
Looking at the different political parties, Republicans (53%) were much more inclined than both the Democrats (25%) and the independents (34%) to support the bans.
The survey found that Republican support for the anti-trans legislation drops to 45% when the question is worded more vaguely, while the other two parties remained steady.
Data on Generational Identification
Gallup’s survey data also showed that only 0.9% of U.S. adults identify as transgender, with the largest population falling within Gen Z.
There are many reasons why American adults may be split on the issue of not morally supporting transgender youth but also not supporting a legislative ban on their care.
It could be due to American’s general lack of support for any type of ban (i.e. smoking, guns) or due to the wording of the proposed legislation.
There is still quite a gap between grassroots Republican opinion on the matter compared to Republican-majority legislatures, creating a possible rift in the Republican party.
Featured Image Credit: Shutterstock / Nuva Frames.
