Growing majority of US is against trans athletes competing outside birth gender: Gallup poll
A growing majority of Americans believe transgender athletes should have to compete under their birth gender — with more than half also convinced that changing gender itself is “morally wrong,” according to a new Gallup poll Monday.
Gallup’s Values and Beliefs survey shows that a whopping 69% — nearly seven out of every 10 people — now believe trans athletes should only be able to enter events under their birth gender, up from 61% in 2021.
Of those polled last month, barely a quarter — 26% — said they actively support trans athletes competing under their chosen identities, the poll showed.
That is down markedly from the 34% who were OK with it two years ago.
The opposition was even more notable among Republicans, with an overwhelming 93% against athletes being able to switch gender categories, up 7 points from the 2021 survey.
But even Democrats were divided, with 47% in favor of athletes being able to switch — yet 48% against.
The growing opposition comes despite more Americans now knowing someone who is transgender, Gallup noted.
Nearly 40% of those polled said they personally know someone transgender, up from 31% — but even among this group, just 30% support athletes switching gender categories, a 10-point drop.
Support is even lower among those who don’t know a transgender person, with just 23% supporting them competing outside their birth gender.
But Americans are not just against athletes — a majority object to transitioning itself.
About 55% of those polled considered “changing one’s gender” to be “morally wrong” — while just 43% find it “morally acceptable.”
This time, Democrats were more in favor, with 70% now finding it acceptable, up from 67% in 2021.
However, even the group who said they know someone transgender was now less accepting — with 56% finding changing gender morally acceptable, down from 60% in 2021.
Younger respondents were more likely to be in favor, with 60% of those age 18 to 29 finding it acceptable compared to just 32% of those age 50 and over.
The results come amid an ongoing fervent debate over trans athletes, most prominently in the pool with UPenn swimmer Lia Thomas, who smashed records after joining the women’s team.
A controversial trans woman cyclist, Austin Killips, also created an uproar over the weekend in North Carolina when she beat her closest opponent by a whopping 5 minutes, leading critics such as tennis great Martina Navratilova to tweet, “What a joke.”
Companies such as Bud Light and Target that have supported trans products or influencers have seen a huge backlash with plummetting sales.
Gallup said the poll results show that “laws that restrict participation for transgender athletes are generally in line with US public opinion.
“It appears that Americans view transgender sports participation more through a lens of competitive fairness than transgender civil rights,” the analytics experts said.
