June 15, 2017

Americans split on alternative sexuality rights

Gallup - Americans are about evenly divided on whether new civil rights laws are needed to protect lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. Fifty-one percent of U.S. adults say such laws are needed, while 46% say they are not.

According to the Human Rights Campaign, the nation's largest LGBT advocacy group, 20 states have protections against discrimination in employment and housing situations for both sexual orientation and gender identity.

Among key political and demographic subgroups, support for new LGBT protections is highest among liberals (76%) and Democrats (67%), both of whom have typically been advocates for LGBT issues. By contrast, Republicans (27%) and conservatives (29%) are the least likely to say new laws are needed, echoing positions often taken by GOP political leaders.

About six in 10 women (61%) support new civil rights laws to protect LGBT people -- significantly higher than support among men (40%). More than half of 18- to 49-year-olds say new laws are needed, while less than half of those 50 and older agree. Though whites have been more supportive of same-sex marriage, nonwhites are more likely to say that new civil rights laws should be created.

Currently, Americans are split on what public restroom access policies should be -- they are about as likely to say transgender individuals should be required to use a bathroom that corresponds to their birth gender (48%) as to say a transgender person should be allowed to use a bathroom that corresponds to their gender identity (45%). Seven percent have no opinion on the issue.

This is a slight shift from last year, when Americans were 10 percentage points more likely to say that birth gender should dictate public bathroom use.

Consistent with their polarized views on LGBT civil rights laws more generally, conservatives and liberals have opposing views on the issue of transgender bathroom policies. While about seven in 10 conservatives favor bathroom assignment based on birth gender, just as many liberals favor basing it on an individual's gender identity. A similar split exists among Republicans and Democrats, though Democrats are slightly less supportive of gender identity-based policy than liberals.

Slight to solid majorities of weekly and nearly weekly churchgoers, men, adults aged 50 to 64 and nonwhites would rather require people to use the bathroom of their birth gender. Meanwhile, small majorities of infrequent churchgoers, 18- to 29-year-olds and women favor allowing people to choose based on their gender identity.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

On the restroom policy, a trans woman who was Assigned Male At Birth (AMAB), runs a greater risk of being assaulted or raped by a man in the mens room, then the risk a woman runs using the restroom with a trans woman in the woman's restroom at the same time. Trans people have a rough time with all the discrimination they face just for being trans.