The Economist/YouGov poll finds that a majority of Americans see discrimination against people who are transgender as something that takes place "a lot" (46%) or "a little" (28%) in the United States. Nearly half of Americans saying that there is "a lot" of discrimination against people who are transgender remains unchanged from when the question was first asked in an Economist/YouGov poll conducted in March 2022.
A majority of Americans (59%) who know someone who is transgender or gender non-binary say that there is "a lot" of discrimination against people who are transgender in the United States today. Most Americans say they know someone who is lesbian, gay, or bisexual, including themselves (74%) — but just half as many personally know someone who is transgender or gender non-binary (37%).
Americans are divided on whether society has "gone too far in accepting people who are transgender" (34%) or "not gone far enough" (32%), while 18% say society's acceptance of transgender people is about right. People who personally know someone who identifies as transgender or gender non-binary are more likely than people who do not have that personal connection to say society has "not gone far enough" in accepting people who are transgender (51% vs. 22%).
By 40% to 35%, Americans are more likely to disapprove than approve of the way Joe Biden has been handling gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender issues — with Republicans being far more likely than Democrats to disapprove (67% vs. 12%). Americans also are more likely to disapprove than approve of the way that Donald Trump handled LGBT issues during his presidency, as well as the way Ron DeSantis has handled such issues as the governor of Florida.
— Kathy Frankovic, Carl Bialik, and Taylor Orth contributed to this article
See the toplines and crosstabs from the Economist/YouGov poll conducted on May 27 - 31, 2023 among 1,500 U.S. adult citizens.
Methodology: Respondents were selected from YouGov’s opt-in panel using sample matching. A random sample (stratified by gender, age, race, education, geographic region, and voter registration) was selected from the 2019 American Community Survey. The sample was weighted according to gender, age, race, education, 2020 election turnout and presidential vote, baseline party identification, and current voter registration status. Demographic weighting targets come from the 2019 American Community Survey. Baseline party identification is the respondent’s most recent answer given prior to November 1, 2022, and is weighted to the estimated distribution at that time (33% Democratic, 31% Republican). The margin of error for the overall sample is approximately 3%.
Image: Adobe Stock (nito)
