On Tuesday, Gallup released a survey showing that most Americans — 62 percent — believe athletes should participate in sports based on their biological sex, not their “gender identity.”
Only 34 percent of poll respondents believe that athletes should play sports according to the sex they choose.
Gallup reported on its poll:
While Americans maintain their support for transgender military service, a majority believe birth gender, rather than gender identity, should govern participation in competitive sports.
Among party, gender and age subgroups, only Democrats (55 percent) express majority support for transgender athletes’ ability to play on teams matching their gender identity.
Among political ideology groups, self-identified liberals (63 percent) are most supportive of allowing athletes to play on teams according to their gender identity, while 34 percent of moderates and 12 percent of conservatives have this view.
The poll noted that just 0.6 percent of the country’s 331 million population consider themselves transgender.
“This political issue is fairly new to most Americans, though, and the public has changed its mind on LGBT issues in recent memory,” Gallup concluded. “So, while there is currently considerable resistance to letting athletes play on teams according to their gender identity rather than their birth gender, it’s possible that Americans may view the issue differently down the line. However, changes in views on LGBT issues are often driven by generational change, and at the moment, young Americans hold views similar to their elders’.”
The Gallup poll was conducted between May 3 to 18 and included 1,016 adults from all 50 U.S. states. The results had a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points, with a 95 percent confidence level.
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