An increasing number of Americans say they are opposed to transgender athletes playing on teams that match their gender identity, according to a new poll.
A Gallup poll released Monday found that 69 percent of Americans say transgender athletes should only play on sports teams that match their sex assigned at birth, a seven point increase from 2021. Just 26 percent said that transgender athletes should be able to play on teams that match their identity, an eight point drop from 2021.
“It appears that Americans view transgender sports participation more through a lens of competitive fairness than transgender civil rights. Even Democrats, who mostly support LGBTQ+ rights and affirm the morality of gender change, are divided on the issue of whether transgender athletes should be allowed to participate on teams that match their gender identity rather than birth gender,” the poll results read.
This increased opposition also applies to Americans who say they know a transgender person. Among those who say they know a transgender person in 2023, 64 percent said transgender athletes should only play on teams that match their sex assigned at birth, up from 53 percent in 2021.
Among those who said they did not know a transgender person, 72 percent said that they should only play on teams that match their sex assigned at birth in 2023, up six points from 2021.
Republicans across the country have seized on the issue. Twenty-one states restrict the right of transgender people to compete on teams consistent with their gender identity, according to the Human Rights Campaign. And in April, House Republicans passed a bill to prohibit transgender women and girls from participating in female athletic programs, though it is not expected to go anywhere in the Democratically-controlled Sente.
GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley last week said the debate over whether transgender women and girls should be allowed to compete on sports teams alongside their cisgender peers is the “women’s issue of our time.”
While Republicans overwhelmingly oppose transgender athletes being able to play on teams that match their gender identity, with only six percent support, Democrats are split on the issue. Forty-seven percent of Democrats say that transgender athletes should be able to play on teams that match their gender identity and 48 percent said that they should only play on teams consistent with their sex assigned at birth. Six percent of Democrats said they had no opinion.
The poll also found that 55 percent of Americans say that changing one’s gender is “morally wrong,” which is a slight increase from 2021. Forty-three percent said that it was “morally acceptable,” which is a three point drop from 2021.
The Gallup poll was conducted between May 1 to 24 among 1,011 adults from all 50 states and Washington, D.C. It has a sampling error of plus or minus four percentage points.