The majority of Americans now say changing your gender is "morally wrong," according to a newly released poll.
The Gallup poll, conducted in May but released on Friday, also found that the majority of Americans oppose banning sex changes for minors.
"A steady 51% of Americans think changing one’s gender is morally wrong, while 44% say it is morally acceptable, which is generally in line with readings in 2021 and 2023," the pollsters report. "At the same time, more than six in 10 U.S. adults oppose laws banning gender-affirming care for minors."
The pollsters explained, "This discrepancy could be because the questions about gender-affirming care specifically mention minors, while the question about the morality of changing one’s gender does not. In addition, the relatively low support for banning laws on gender-affirming care may be attributable to Americans’ general distaste for bans, a pattern that can be seen in Gallup trends on banning cigarette smoking and handguns."
There are pronounced differences in opinion among political parties.
Gallup reports, "Majorities of political liberals (81%), Democrats (72%), those who do not identify with a religion (67%), those who do not attend religious services regularly (59%), young adults aged 18 to 29 (56%) and college graduates (53%) believe changing genders is morally acceptable. Less than half of their counterparts say the same."
There are also differences in belief among the two genders.While slightly less than half of women believe in the moral acceptability of changing genders, they are significantly more likely than men to think as much (48% vs. 39%, respectively).
The poll was conducted from May 1-23, among 1,024 adults. It has a margin of error of 4 percentage points at the 95 percent confidence level.
