Survey: Most Americans support protections for LGBTQ+ people
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A demonstrator holds a transgender pride flag during a President's Day protest near the Capitol on Feb. 17. Photo: Stefani Reynolds/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Three-quarters of Americans support nondiscrimination protections for LGBTQ+ people, but remain divided over support for laws restricting gender-affirming care for minors, according to a Public Religion Research Institute survey out Tuesday.
Why it matters: President Trump made attacks against trans people a central part of his campaign — and many of his earliest actions in office have targeted or rolled back protections for trans Americans.
By the numbers: 89% of Democrats, 62% of Republicans and 78% of independents support nondiscrimination protections in housing, employment and public accommodation for LGBTQ+ people, according to the PRRI survey.
- Americans are largely divided along partisan lines over laws restricting gender-affirming care for minors, according to the survey.
- 70% of Democrats oppose laws that would ban parents from allowing their child to receive gender-affirming care, compared to 30% of Republicans.
- A slightly smaller share of Democrats, 60%, oppose laws that require a person's driver's license or ID to match their sex assigned at birth. 14% of Republicans oppose such laws.
Reality check: Major medical organizations, including the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Psychiatric Association, consider gender-affirming care medically necessary and lifesaving.
Zoom in: Most states still allow transgender people to update their gender marker on their birth certificates or IDs.
- But a day one Trump executive order stating the federal government would only recognize two genders, male and female, has sparked confusion at the state-level over individuals' wanting to update their passport to ensure it matches their gender identity, Axios' Christine Clarridge reports from Seattle.
What they're saying: "Support for LGBTQ rights, including marriage equality and non-discrimination protections, have largely stabilized after some modest declines last year, with strong majorities — including majorities of most people of faith — supporting such policies," PRRI CEO Melissa Deckman said in a news release.
- "Americans are more divided on the rights of transgender Americans, however, largely polarized along partisan lines," Deckman said.
The big picture: Trump's allies across the government are also passing policies targeting trans Americans, including as recently as last week when the Pentagon moved to ban transgender service members unless they receive a waiver.
- On his first day in office, Trump also rescinded some Biden-era orders that in part provided nondiscrimination protections in health care and schools for LGBTQ people, according to KFF.
- The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission under the second Trump administration has also moved to stop enforcing — or dismiss entirely — nondiscrimination cases and protections for LGBTQ+ people in the workforce.
Methodology: The PRRI survey was conducted online between March 13 and Dec. 2, 2024. It is based on a random sample of 22,260 adults in all 50 states. Among those, 20,642 are part of Ipsos's KnowledgePanel and an additional 1,618 were recruited by Ipsos using opt-in survey panels, per PRRI.
- The margin of error for the national survey is +/- 0.84 percentage points at the 95% level of confidence,
Go deeper: All of the anti-trans executive orders Trump has signed
