YouGovYouGov Survey: Transgender Children and Schools · Jan 23–26, 2023 · US national
Verification note. Crosstab PDF downloaded and parsed. Totals read from the published toplines section (dotted-leader format, unambiguous); Party ID columns read from the crosstab tables and checked to sum to 99-101%. Party breaks were NOT extracted for Q3, Q5, Q10, Q13, Q16, Q21-Q23 because those tables use a column layout the extraction could not disambiguate safely; totals for those items are still verbatim from the release.
Figures below are transcribed from these documents. Where they disagree with the source, the source governs.
Which of the following statements comes closer to your feelings?
neutral — same wording as the Economist/YouGov tracker, so it extends that series
| Group | Gone too far | About right | Not gone far enough | Not sure |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democrat | 15% | 23% | 49% | 13% |
| Independent | 31% | 22% | 27% | 20% |
| Republican | 56% | 19% | 10% | 15% |
Some people say their gender identity does not match the sex that they were assigned at birth. Do you think this is the result of. . . ?
neutral — offers a genuine 'mix of both' middle
Do you think that people feeling as if they are a different gender than the one they were assigned at birth is. . . ?
neutral — two substantive alternatives with an explicit Not sure
How much discrimination do you think there is against people who are transgender in the United States today?
neutral — same wording as the Economist/YouGov and January 2024 YouGov items
| Group | A lot | A little | None | Not sure |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democrat | 61% | 25% | 5% | 9% |
| Independent | 45% | 29% | 12% | 14% |
| Republican | 30% | 40% | 12% | 18% |
Which comes closer to your view regarding the privacy rights of children?
Wording notes: asked in a transgender-schools survey, so the general privacy item is primed by the surrounding context
neutral — the alternatives are asymmetric in scope ('in some circumstances' versus an unqualified 'not') which softens the affirming side
If you had a child who told you they were transgender, would you be. . . ?
neutral — balanced four-point support scale with a Not sure
In cases where a student comes out to a teacher as transgender, but feels unsafe telling their parents, do you think teachers should be required by law to. . . ?
Wording notes: stem explicitly stipulates the student 'feels unsafe telling their parents' | asks about a legal requirement, not about what a teacher should choose to do
neutral — the 'feels unsafe' stipulation cuts toward non-disclosure and the 'required by law' framing cuts against a mandate, so the two lean in opposite directions; the near-tie (36-35) with a very large 29% Not sure is the substantive finding
| Group | Tell the student's parents that they are transgender | Not tell the student's parents that they are transgender | Not sure |
|---|---|---|---|
| Democrat | 22% | 51% | 27% |
| Independent | 32% | 32% | 36% |
| Republican | 56% | 22% | 22% |
How important do you think it is for public schools to have trained counselors available to provide support for transgender students?
neutral — standard importance scale; note this is one of the most affirming results in the whole survey (70% important)
Compared to other issues, do you think that lawmakers in your state are focusing too much or too little on issues relating to gender identity in schools?
Wording notes: 'too much / too little' is directionally ambiguous
unclear — Republicans read 'too much' as too much accommodation while Democrats read 'too little' as too little protection; the party split here (Rep 48% too much, Dem 32% too little) runs opposite to the April 2023 Economist/YouGov version of the same item, which is strong evidence the item does not measure one latent attitude
| Group | Focusing too much | Focusing about the right amount | Focusing too little | Not sure |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democrat | 19% | 27% | 32% | 21% |
| Independent | 30% | 20% | 14% | 36% |
| Republican | 48% | 22% | 10% | 21% |
Do you think it should be legal or illegal for parents to send their children who identify as transgender to "conversion therapy" that attempts to change their gender identity or expression to align with societal norms and expectations of their assigned sex at birth?
Wording notes: defines conversion therapy in the question stem | puts 'conversion therapy' in quotation marks
neutral — the definitional clause is accurate and unusually explicit; scare-quoting the term is a mild signal but the definition supplied is the substantive content
| Group | Should be legal | Should be illegal | Not sure |
|---|---|---|---|
| Democrat | 17% | 61% | 22% |
| Independent | 27% | 41% | 33% |
| Republican | 38% | 33% | 30% |
Asked of a randomly selected half of respondents
A student in elementary school confides in their teacher that they are transgender, and asks to be referred to by pronouns that reflect the gender they identify with. The student tells the teacher that they don't feel safe coming out to their parents, and asks the teacher to refrain from sharing this information with them. Do you think the teacher should. . . ?
Wording notes: randomized split-half vignette; the elementary and high-school versions differ only in the school level | vignette stipulates the student does not feel safe coming out to parents | offers a parental-permission middle option that most pollsters omit
neutral — a well-constructed randomized vignette; the notable result is that school level barely moves opinion (31/24/23 elementary vs 30/20/28 high school), which cuts against the claim that concern is specific to young children
Asked of a randomly selected half of respondents
A student in high school confides in their teacher that they are transgender, and asks to be referred to by pronouns that reflect the gender they identify with. The student tells the teacher that they don't feel safe coming out to their parents, and asks the teacher to refrain from sharing this information with them. Do you think the teacher should. . . ?
Wording notes: randomized split-half vignette; the elementary and high-school versions differ only in the school level | vignette stipulates the student does not feel safe coming out to parents | offers a parental-permission middle option that most pollsters omit
neutral — a well-constructed randomized vignette; the notable result is that school level barely moves opinion (31/24/23 elementary vs 30/20/28 high school), which cuts against the claim that concern is specific to young children
Every figure on this page is transcribed from the source linked above. How to read this data →