Most white evangelicals say society has gone 'too far' in accepting transgender people, poll finds

Americans’ understanding of gender identity and acceptance of transgender people is closely tied to their religious beliefs, new research shows.

In a report published Thursday by the Pew Research Center, 87 percent of white evangelicals said a person’s gender cannot be different from their sex assigned at birth, as did a majority of Black Protestants (70 percent) and Catholics (62 percent).

Religiously unaffiliated Americans, at 58 percent, were more likely to say a person’s gender is not determined by their sex assigned at birth, with atheists (76 percent) and agnostics (67 percent) especially likely to hold this view, according to Pew.

Each religious groups’ views on gender identity have fluctuated over the last few years, and while Protestants and Catholics have become increasingly more unaccepting of transgender identities, acceptance among non-religious Americans has remained relatively stable.

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In another Pew report published last month, 60 percent of Americans overall said they believe a person’s gender is determined by their sex assigned at birth, up from 56 percent in 2021 and 54 percent in 2017.

At the same time, more Americans than ever say they know someone who is transgender, including roughly 40 percent of white evangelicals, according to Pew. 

White evangelicals were also the only religious group surveyed in which a majority (68 percent) said society has gone “too far” in accepting transgender people, up from 61 percent in 2017. They’re also the most likely to believe that views about transgender and gender-nonconforming people are changing “too quickly.”

Members of other Christian faiths, including white non-evangelical Protestants, Black Protestants and Catholics, were less likely to be in agreement over whether society has gone “too far,” “not far enough,” or has been “about right” in accepting transgender people.

Meanwhile, more than half of religiously unaffiliated Americans said not enough has been done to support the transgender community, including 71 percent of atheists and 65 percent of agnostics.

Most Christian Americans said their views on gender identity have been heavily influenced by their religion. Half of white evangelical Protestants, for instance, said their religion had shaped their opinions on the subject “a great deal.”

The Pew report also asked Americans whether they support transgender-inclusive policies, like measures enabling transgender people to use the restroom that matches their gender identity.

Most white evangelical Protestants (70 percent) said they favored policies that would require transgender people to use facilities that correspond with their sex assigned at birth. 

A majority (69 percent) also said it should be illegal for public elementary school teachers to engage in classroom instruction related to gender identity, and 82 percent said policies should be developed to prevent transgender athletes from competing on sports teams consistent with their gender identity.

White evangelicals were also mostly in agreement that government documents should not include a gender-neutral option for nonbinary people, as were white Protestants who are not evangelical and Catholics.

At the same time, religiously unaffiliated Americans were mostly opposed to policies that would limit how transgender people navigate their day-to-day lives. They were, however, more evenly split on gender markers, with 52 percent in favor of an alternate gender option for official identification documents and 47 percent opposed.

Importantly, some differences in opinion between religious groups reflect their political party affiliation or age profiles. Younger people account for a relatively large share of religiously unaffiliated adults, for instance, and are much more likely to believe society has not done enough to protect and accept transgender people, according to Pew.