A clear majority of Americans oppose gender transition procedures for minors, according to a new poll, while opinions vary on whether or not schools should hide children’s social gender transitions from parents. On Wednesday, Rasmussen Reports announced that 58% of Americans oppose gender transition procedures — such as puberty blockers, hormone drugs, and surgeries — for children under 18, including 47% who “strongly oppose” such procedures. Thirty percent of Americans said that they support gender transition procedures for minors, while 12% are unsure of where they stand on the issue.
As the beginning of a new school year draws near, Rasmussen also found that 47% of Americans oppose schools and teachers keeping students’ social gender transitions a secret from parents. A reported 30% are unsure where they stand on the issue, but 23% “believe schools and teachers should be allowed to counsel students on their sexual and gender identities without parental knowledge or consent,” which Rasmussen noted is up from 20% just in June. The polling firm also observed, “Men (49%) are more likely than women (44%) to think schools and teachers should not be allowed to counsel students on their sexual and gender identities without parental knowledge or consent.”
According to a report updated earlier this month by Parents Defending Education, nearly 1,100 school districts, comprising nearly 20,000 individual schools and over 11.5 million students, currently have policies in place requiring teachers and administrators to keep students’ social gender transition efforts a secret from parents. While the vast majority (596) of those school districts are in California, that still leaves over 500 school districts across the rest of the country, accounting for thousands of schools and hundreds of thousands of students.
A poll published late last year found that two-thirds of Americans oppose schools hiding students’ social gender transitions from parents and believe that teachers and administrators should “be obligated to inform parents if their child changes their gender identification or preferred pronouns at school.” Another 2023 survey found that nearly 80% of adults in New Jersey (including 61% of Democrats) support policies requiring schools to inform parents of students’ social gender transition efforts or requests. Additionally, 59% of Garden State adults said that teachers should inform parents even if there’s no formal policy in place requiring parental notification.
Rasmussen’s latest survey also reported that 39% of Americans think that schools “do too much to accommodate” students who identify as transgender, while 24% think that most schools don’t do enough, 21% think schools have things “about right,” and another 17% are unsure where they stand on the issue.
S.A. McCarthy serves as a news writer at The Washington Stand.