Despite gender and sexuality dominating the conversation in some cultural arenas, public opinion could spell trouble for progressives touting sex changes for minors or defending the presence of sexual topics in public schools.
The American Principles Project (APP), a conservative nonprofit, released survey results this week based on responses from 1,200 likely voters in the Senate battleground states of Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin — and the outcomes are eye-opening.
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The majority of likely voters in these states (56%) support “laws banning puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and physical sex-change surgeries for children,” according to APP. Just 31% oppose such laws.
Overall, 62% said children are simply too young to make such a permanent decision.
Additionally, 60% of respondents would support laws that ban the teaching of gender identity and sexual orientation in kindergarten through third grade. This finding is particularly intriguing due to the ongoing debate over Florida’s Parental Rights in Education law, which takes effect July 1.
The law, which ignited a war between Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) and The Walt Disney Company, among others, was improperly dubbed the “Don’t Say Gay bill” by the media and critics. Despite the furor over the measure, the majority of respondents are siding with DeSantis on holding back these topics from elementary school students.
Just 34% disagreed with laws banning instruction on gender identity and sexual orientation.
The survey also found majority support (59%) for schools being required to let parents know if a child begins identifying in school as transgender, and 56% supported laws that would protect women’s sports from kindergarten through college.
APP President Terry Schilling said the survey results show that “cultural issues are a big winner for Republicans” and pointed to a disparity between Americans’ views and what the media often report on these issues.
“The results were consistent across the board. Strong majorities of voters support defending women’s sports, protecting kids from being pushed into sex changes, removing age-inappropriate sexual lessons from schools, and cracking down on Big Tech censorship,” Shilling said. “While the left-wing media may attack these positions as ‘bigoted,’ the truth is that these are commonsense views held by most Americans, even in highly competitive battleground states.”
These issues will undoubtedly emerge in the upcoming midterm elections. However, the full impact on the landscape — which mainly depends on how candidates on both sides politically tackle these topics — remains to be seen.
The survey, conducted by OnMessage, Inc., has a margin of error of +/- 2.82 percentage points.
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