60% of Americans say people can’t switch genders: poll

A majority of Americans believe a person’s gender cannot be changed, according to a new poll, which underscores the public’s complicated view of transgender issues.

A new survey released by the Pew Research Center on Tuesday states that 60% of adults say “a person’s gender is determined by their sex assigned at birth.”

This is a four-point increase from the previous year — 56% in 2021 — and a six-point increase from 54% in 2017.

“No single demographic group is driving this change, and patterns in who is more likely to say this is similar to what they were in past years,” according to the Pew survey.

The survey found that 86% of Republicans and those leaning Republican believe gender is determined by the sex assigned at birth compared to 38% of Democrats and those leaning Democratic.

However, the survey stated that 64 percent of respondents would support legislation to protect transgender people from discrimination in jobs, housing, and public spaces. And it noted that “roughly eight-in-ten U.S. adults say there is at least some discrimination against transgender people in our society.”

The Pew poll comes amid a heated national debate about women’s sports and fairness, sparked by the rise of transgender woman Lia Thomas.

Thomas is now a former University of Pennsylvania swimmer, where she set records while competing on the women’s team. Thomas, who previously competed on the men’s team at the school, has urged that she has no competitive advantage over her female teammates.

The study’s findings on transgender athletes are consistent with a recent Washington Post-University of Maryland poll, which found that 58% of Americans believe transgender women should be barred from competing in college or professional sports.

A whopping 68% of those polled agreed that allowing transgender girls to compete against biological girls in youth sports would be beneficial because “transgender girls would have a competitive advantage over other girls.”

According to the poll, the majority of adults — 58% — support policies that require transgender athletes to compete on teams that match the sex they were assigned at birth rather than the gender they identify with, compared to 17% who oppose and 24% who have no opinion.

Recently, Louisiana became the 18th state to mandate schools to separate teams based on biological sex.