Polling shows that knowing a trans person decreases transphobia

Recent polling shows that Americans increasingly support transphobic bathroom bills, but social science research suggests that this trend could be reversed if more Americans simply came to personally know transgender people.

In a poll released last October, approximately 52% of Americans said they support “bathroom bills” requiring trans people to use facilities matching the sex they were assigned at birth. This was 17% higher than the 35% who supported bathroom bills when the same question was asked in 2016, the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) reported.

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This increase is most likely due to the recent wave of transphobic legislation and rhetoric by conservatives nationwide. As of July 28, 80 anti-trans bills have been passed in state legislatures in 2023 so far, according to the Trans Legislation Tracker, a 207% increase from the 26 transphobic bills passed in 2022. Many of these laws ban trans people from accessing correct bathrooms, gender-affirming care, or having their identities respected in public schools and other institutions.

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However, a June 2023 PRRI survey found that people who know trans people are less likely to agree with transphobic political views. This illustrates a phenomenon known in social science research as “intergroup contact theory.”

The theory states that interpersonal contact with people who are different from one’s self leads to more positive attitudes about those people and a decreased belief in negative stereotypes about them, PRRI CEO Melissa Deckman wrote at The Hill.

For example, in the June 2023 survey, 70% of trans respondents and respondents who are personally close to a trans person said they opposed bans on gender-affirming care for trans children. Comparatively, only 52% of cisgender respondents and those who don’t personally know trans people said that they opposed the bans.

Approximately 35% of respondents who know a trans acquaintance agreed with the conservative view that “young people are being peer pressured into being transgender.” That percentage rose to 49% among respondents who don’t know any transgender people.

Similarly, 20% of respondents who are personally close to a trans person agree that it’s never appropriate to discuss that some people are trans in public schools — a view that has been pushed by the anti-LGBTQ+ group Moms for Liberty and other so-called “parents’ rights” groups. That percentage rose to 41% among respondents who don’t know any transgender people.

In short, the increase in transphobic rhetoric and legislation has been able to thrive because most Americans don’t know actual trans people.

In fact, only 6% to 11% of all respondents in the June 2023 survey said that they have a “close personal relationship” with a trans friend or family member. Comparatively, 40% to 59% of all respondents said that they have a “close personal relationship” with a gay, lesbian, or bisexual friend or family member.

But while the trans community may benefit politically in the long run by building closer relationships with cisgender people, that still presents some challenges. Foremost, some trans people may feel afraid of outing themselves to cis family members, neighbors, and co-workers who may be unsupportive or even hostile to trans individuals.

Also, because only 0.4% of the entire U.S. adult population identifies as trans — compared to the 7.1% of the U.S. adult population that identifies as gay, lesbian, or bisexual — the trans community will need the help of supportive cis allies to help fight transphobic rhetoric and legislation that threatens trans people and their rights.