[News] [USA] Poll: Plurality Support Transgender Bathroom Choice, Want Government Out

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Wall Street Journal, NY, USA


Poll: Plurality Support Transgender Bathroom Choice, Want Government Out

By Daniel Nasaw

May 23, 2016 5:08 pm ET


A plurality of Americans say transgender individuals should be able to use the bathrooms of their choice, a new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll shows. The poll also finds pluralities opposing state or federal governments’ involvement in the issue.

The poll shows a significant proportion of Americans haven’t formed an opinion on the bathroom issue. It shows few American know a transgender person – but suggests that the more Americans get to know transgender individuals, the greater the likelihood they will support transgender rights.

“There’s a very low level of awareness of who transgender people are,” says Jeff Horwitt of Hart Research, a Democratic pollster who helped conduct the poll. “We’re at the very early stages of sorting out how the country should be dealing with transgender Americans.”

In the new poll, 40% of people surveyed say transgender people should be allowed to use the public restroom corresponding to the gender with which they identify, compared to 31% who say they should be legally barred from doing so and 29% who expressed no opinion.

Asked about the U.S. Justice Department’s effort to require states such as North Carolina to permit transgender people to use the bathrooms of their choice or risk losing millions of dollars in federal education funds, 49% oppose it, 28% support it, and 23% offer no opinion.

Some 38% of those surveyed say state governments should not pass any laws on transgender bathroom access, compared to 22% who say states should prevent transgender individuals from using bathrooms of the gender with which they identify and 19% who say states should pass laws allowing transgender bathroom access.

Transgender people and the question of which public bathrooms they should use have only recently gained prominence in American public life. Last year, reality television star and ex-Olympian Bruce Jenner transitioned to a woman and changed her name to Caitlyn Jenner. More recently, North Carolina passed a bill requiring transgender people to use public bathrooms corresponding to their birth sex, and other states have begun weighing similar measures.

Americans “don’t want to see legislation that’s focused on where people go to the bathroom, and they similarly don’t like seeing the conflict that erupts when the federal government is forced to step in to protect the rights of vulnerable transgender Americans,” said Michael Silverman, executive director of the Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund.

Only 39% of respondents say they personally know or work with a transgender person, compared to 72% who said in October they knew someone who is gay or lesbian.
Among people who know a transgender person, 43% say the country has not gone far enough in accepting transgender people, compared to 27% who say the country has gone too far and 25% who say there is a reasonable balance.

By comparison, 27% of people who do not know a transgender person say the country has not gone far enough, 37% say the country has gone too far, and 30% say there is a reasonable balance.

Estimates show the number of transgender Americans is likely tiny. An April 2011 paper by a researcher at the University of California law school estimated about 0.3% of American adults are transgender, compared with 3.5% who identify as gay, lesbian or bisexual.

“As Americans become more familiar with transgender people — as we’ve seen on other issues like gay and lesbian rights — attitudes do really change,” Mr. Horwitt said.

The poll of 1,000 registered voters was conducted May 15-19 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.


Copyright ©2015 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2016/05/23/poll-plurality-support-transgender-bathroom-choice-want-government-out/
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