The divide between Republicans and Democrats runs deep. The Pew Research Center recently released the results of a new study that demonstrates how wide that divide is when it comes to transgender issues.
While the survey is not really surprising, there are a few results that are of particular interest.
For starters, I was disheartened by these numbers: “Overall, roughly half of Americans (54%) say that whether someone is a man or a woman is determined by the sex they were assigned at birth, while 44% say someone can be a man or a woman even if that is different from the sex they were assigned at birth.”
While the fact that only 54 percent of Americans believe that boys can’t be girls and vice versa is not really surprising, I guess I was hoping for a somewhat higher number. Fifty-four percent seems low, and considering that these numbers are trending the wrong way, that figure probably harbingers a future filled with increasingly dangerous and absurd anti-morals.
Of course, that 54 percent is heavily weighted toward Republicans. The research reveals that:
Democrats and Republicans have sharply different views on this question. While eight-in-ten Republicans and Republican-leaning independents say that whether someone is a man or a woman is determined by the sex they were assigned at birth, most Democrats and Democratic leaners (64%) take the opposite view and say a person’s gender can be different from the sex they were assigned at birth.
One of the interesting things that the survey reveals about Democrats is that “some 55% of black Democrats and 41% of Hispanic Democrats say a person’s gender is determined by their sex assigned at birth, a view shared by just 24% of white Democrats.”
As Democrats increasingly marry themselves to identity politics and intersectionality, the divide between black Democrats and white Democrats over transgender issues is going to become problematic for an already fractured party.
That divide isn’t just seen between Democrats of differing ethnicities, though. There’s also a divide between Democrats with different education levels:
Democrats with a bachelor’s degree or more education are more likely than other Democrats to say a person’s gender can be different from the sex they were assigned at birth. About three-quarters (77%) of Democrats with a bachelor’s degree or more say this, compared with 60% of Democrats with some college and 57% of those with a high school diploma or less. No such divide exists among Republicans.
Republicans appear to present a unified front across generations, too:
Millennials are somewhat more likely than older generations to say someone can be a man or a woman, even if that is different from the sex they were assigned at birth. Half of Millennials say this, compared with roughly four-in-ten Gen Xers (41%), Boomers (43%) and members of the Silent Generation (37%).
However, this generational gap goes away when partisanship is taken into account. Majorities of Democrats across generations say someone’s gender can be different from the sex they were assigned at birth, while about eight-in-ten Republican Millennials, Gen Xers, Boomers and Silents say that whether someone is a man or a woman is determined by the sex they were assigned at birth.
Transgender issues aren’t going away anytime soon. As this survey reveals, the bifurcation of our society is growing wider. Transgenderism is an issue that Democrats and Republicans are probably never going to see eye-to-eye on.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member