Headed into November's presidential election, Americans remain divided on various sexual orientation and gender identity issues. According to the latest national survey by the Pew Research Center, their responses largely break down by whether they support President Joe Biden or former President Donald Trump.
According to Pew, Trump supporters overwhelmingly say a person's gender is determined by the sex they were assigned at birth. By contrast, it found that a majority of Biden supporters, by a less one-sided margin, say someone can be a man or woman even if that is different from their sex at birth.
The survey found that 87% of Biden supporters said yes when asked the question, while only 9% of Trump supporters agreed.
Pew's research also found that Biden's supporters are far more comfortable than Trump supporters with people using the pronouns "they" or "them" to describe themselves. And two decades after the first U.S. same-sex marriages were legally performed in Massachusetts, Biden supporters are roughly five times as likely as Trump supporters to say legalizing same-sex marriage has been good for society, according to the survey.
"Certainly, it is the case there are wide partisan divides on issues on sexual orientation and gender identity," Jocelyn Kiley, a Pew associate director of research, told the Bay Area Reporter.
Nearly a decade after the U.S. Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage, Biden and Trump supporters have starkly different views of the impact of that historic ruling, Pew found. Biden supporters are about five times as likely (57%) as Trump supporters (11%) to say legalization of same-sex marriage is good for society, according to the survey.
"It has long been the case there are big partisan divides on voters' views of same-sex marriage," noted Kiley. "We have seen large shifts in American's acceptance of same-sex marriage over time. But even as acceptance has grown, divides still remain."
The research firm on Thursday released the findings of a national survey it conducted April 8-14 among 8,709 adults on Pew Research Center's American Trends Panel. Of 7,166 were registered voters who participated, 3,182 are backing Trump and 3,818 are Biden supporters.
Biden and Trump are the presumptive presidential nominees of the Democratic and Republican parties, respectively, this year in a rematch of their 2020 race. Polling this spring has given Trump an edge in the contest, though it remains to be seen how his now being convicted in the hush money case brought by New York state prosecutors will impact his support among independents, people of color, and younger voters.
Biden draws distinction
With June being Pride Month, Biden and his supporters have made it a point to draw a stark difference between his administration's pro-LGBTQ policies and the anti-LGBTQ stances espoused by Trump and his backers. In releasing his Pride proclamation this year, Biden noted, "To the entire LGBTQI+ community — and especially transgender children — please know that your President and my entire Administration have your back."
In a June 3 phone interview with the Washington Blade, Vice President Kamala Harris said, "Joe Biden and I are very proud to be the most pro-LGBTQ administration in history, and I think that on the other side of this equation in November, you've probably got one of the most anti-LGBTQ administrations in modern history."
As for Trump, he has told his supporters at his campaign rallies that should he be reelected then "on day one, I will sign a new executive order to cut federal funding for any school pushing Critical Race Theory, transgender insanity, and other inappropriate racial, sexual, or political content onto our children," as PBS NewsHour reported earlier this year.
His allies are also pushing a plan dubbed Project 2025, which as the Bay Area Reporter has noted, calls for reinstating the ban on transgender people serving in the armed forces and the rollback of federal anti-LGBTQ discrimination policies.
A number of issues surveyed
Pew's survey, titled "Cultural Issues and the 2024 Election," asked about a number of issues from immigration and racial diversity to same-sex marriage and gender identity. Even within the two camps of partisan voters can be found stark differences in opinion on the topics Pew asked about.
It found that a growing share of voters (65%) say that whether a person is a man or woman is determined by the sex they were assigned at birth. About a third (34%) say someone can be a man or woman, even if that differs from their sex at birth, according to the survey.
Pew noted that the share of voters who say that sex at birth determines whether someone is a man or a woman has increased since 2017, when 53% agreed with the statement. It also noted that the share of Republican and Republican-leaning voters who say that sex at birth determines gender identity has grown from 79% in 2017 to 91% now.
In the same period, Pew found the share of Democratic and Democratic-leaning voters who say had increased from 30% to 39%.
"Younger Americans are much more likely than older Americans to say sex can be different than that assigned at birth," said Kiley, who pointed out some may be surprised to see that "the share of Americans and American voters who say gender is assigned at birth has actually grown over the last couple of years."
It likely stems from Republican leaders and conservative groups orchestrating a prolonged attack in recent years against transgender rights for both youth and adults. Gender identity has become a fraught, politicized issue across the country, even in more liberal states like California.
Nearly two-thirds of Black voters who support Biden (64%) say gender is determined by a person's sex assigned at birth, according to Pew. That compares with 46% of Biden's Hispanic supporters and smaller shares of his white (32%) and Asian supporters (27%), according to the survey.
It also found that Biden supporters without college degrees (47%) are more likely than those with college degrees or more education (30%) to say sex at birth determines someone's gender. Biden supporters under age 35 (29%) are less likely than older Biden supporters to say gender is determined by sex assigned at birth, according to Pew.
Across demographic groups, wide majorities of Trump supporters say gender is determined by sex at birth, Pew found, though it noted there are some differences among his voters. Hispanic Trump supporters (79%) are less likely than white Trump supporters (92%) to say sex birth determines gender identity, according to the survey, and Trump supporters ages 18 to 34 (83%) are less likely to say this than older Trump supporters.
Pronouns
In terms of pronoun usage, just 20% of Trump supporters say they are comfortable with someone using "they/them" instead of "he" or "she" to describe themselves, Pew found. More than three times as many Biden supporters (66%) — including 79% of Biden supporters under age 50 — say they are comfortable with the use of these gender-neutral pronouns, according to the survey.
"A sizable share of Americans are just uncomfortable with the topic of gender identity is one way to put it," said Kiley.
Pew found that over half of voters (56%) say they are not comfortable with someone using the pronouns "they" or "them" to describe themselves, rather than "he" or "she." Roughly four-in-10 (43%) are comfortable with the use of these pronouns.
Biden supporters are more than three times as likely as Trump supporters to say they are comfortable with the use of "they/them" pronouns (66% to 20%). According to the survey Black voters who support Biden (55%) are less comfortable with the use of they/them pronouns than Biden's white (69%), Hispanic (68%), and Asian (72%) backers. Meanwhile, Pew found that Hispanic Trump supporters (33%) are somewhat more likely than the former president's white supporters (16%) to say they are comfortable.
Voters under 50 are more comfortable than those 50 and older with people using gender-neutral pronouns, according to Pew. The survey noted there "is an age gap on this question among both candidates' supporters, but it is particularly stark among Biden voters: 79% of Biden's supporters ages 18 to 49 say they are comfortable, compared with 56% of his supporters who are 50 and older."
Kiley noted that these opinions do not correlate with where people stand when it comes to banning anti-transgender discrimination in jobs, housing and public spaces. She pointed to one Pew study from 2022 that found 64% of people favored laws that would protect trans people in those three areas.
"It is not the same thing as saying people should discriminate against transgender people. There is nuance to the way Americans talk about this," she said.
Pew's survey also found divisions among voters when it asked about the societal effects of more people being comfortable with identifying as gay, lesbian or bisexual and same-sex marriages being legal in the U.S. About a third believe the trends have been "very or somewhat good for society," another third see them as being "bad for society," with the remaining third opting for "neither good nor bad."
About half of Biden supporters (51%) say more people being comfortable identifying as gay, lesbian, or bisexual is good for society, Pew found. And a majority of Biden supporters (57%) say legalization of same-sex marriage is good for society, according to the survey.
Pew found a similar split among Trump supporters, with 53% saying increased comfort with people identifying as lesbian, gay or bisexual was bad for society, and 51% felling similarly about the legalization of same-sex marriage.
When the candidates' voters' responses were broken down by age, differences emerged. Majorities of Biden supporters ages 18 to 49 view both trends positively, with Pew finding "63% say more people being comfortable identifying as lesbian, gay or bisexual is good for society, while 67% say the same of the legalization of same-sex marriage."
About half or fewer of Biden supporters 50 and older shared those views, the survey found. (Pew noted this age group is more likely to instead say that these trends are neither good nor bad.)
With older Trump supporters, they are more likely than his younger supporters to have a negative view of the impact of legalizing same-sex marriage, according to the survey. Pew found that 57% of those 50 and older say it is bad for society, compared with 41% of those younger than 50.
Pew found "no meaningful age differences" in how Trump supporters assess the impact of more lesbian, gay or bisexual people being out in society. It did find that Black voters supporting Biden "are far less likely" than those in other racial and ethnic groups to say increased comfort with identifying as lesbian, gay or bisexual and legalized same-sex marriage are good for society.
The survey found about a quarter of Black Biden supporters say these things are good, compared with about half or more among his white, Hispanic and Asian backers.
The full survey report and findings can be found at pewresearch.org.
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