A poll found nearly half of Republicans think the government should actually regulate transgender people less, not more.
In a new survey from Data for Progress, 58 percent of all voters were in agreement that "the government should be less involved in what transgender people are allowed to do, including the health care they can receive." This included a strong majority of independents and potentially a surprising plurality, 45 percent, of Republicans.
"Whether it's abortion or transgender rights, the majority of Americans and a significant number of Republicans believe that we have a right to decide what we do with our own bodies and personal lives without government interference," Danielle Deiseroth, the executive director at Data for Progress, told Newsweek. "Republicans often advocate for reducing the role of government when it comes to economics and education, but on issues related to transgender people, they want the opposite.
"Our polling suggests that a lot of Republicans disagree with this approach, even if they are not generally supportive of transgender rights, because they think the government should be less involved in regulating what people are allowed to do."
Many Republican politicians and candidates in the last election cycle have made their stances on transgender policies clear, calling for transgender athletes to be excluded from sports as the gender they identify with, as well as for adding restrictions for those who would like to transition at a younger age.
The question in the survey focused on general freedom from the government for transgender people, not about children's issues or government funding related to transgender health care, which Republicans are still likely to be against, said Robert Shapiro, a political science professor at Columbia University.
"There is no threat to life here as in the abortion issue," Shapiro told Newsweek. "It asks about rights which libertarians among Republicans support, just like the fact that Republicans are more supportive than not of gay rights and they have come around toward fully supporting gay marriage. Democrats of course are much more supportive on all fronts."
Another recent survey from NORC at the University of Chicago for the Los Angeles Times found nearly one in three Republicans support children having access to transgender care.
Republicans were much more cohesive when it came to their perspective on transgender women playing in sports leagues against women born female, though. On that issue, a whopping 88 percent of Republicans said they were against transgender women competing.
"It is understandable that the transgender issue is more clear-cut in that it pertains to fairness in competition where transgender women may have at least a possible lingering physiological advantage that can be perceived as unfair that infringes on the prospects of their competitors," Shapiro told Newsweek previously.
"Whereas transgender care only affects the prospects of the individual receiving the care, and Republicans and conservatives may be acknowledging that there are personal health and well-being issues that are between the individuals and medical professionals and the rights of individuals should be protected from state interference."
The Data for Progress poll also found 61 percent of voters, including 58 percent of independents and 41 percent of Republicans, agreed that: "Republican candidates using anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric as part of their campaigns is sad and shameful."
Nationally, around 300,000 children aged 13 to 17 identify as transgender, according to the Williams Institute, the LGBTQ+ research center at UCLA Law.
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