Archived/alternative link as well https://archive.ph/Xj9xh
I think either that poll is an outlier, or Americans have gotten significantly more transphobic in a very short amount of time. A majority of Americans have always opposed athletes participating in the sport of the gender they identify with, but this poll - admittedly from 2021 - shows it at 62% and I think is more in line with other polls. There’s also the issue that even if a majority are against it, it also is true that the American public doesn’t seem to like making it a political issue, and I think it cost the GOP in 2022 when they ran hard on transphobia. Like, your median American may not like the idea trans women in women’s sports, but it’s also something they probably haven’t thought about for more than 2 minutes of their lives; and when they see a politician basing a campaign around it they (rightly) think it to be weird.
I think the political landscape has changed massively from 2021 to 2025 now. Just look at the 2020 Dem campaign on LGBT issues vs 2024. Big difference. IPSOS is some of the most reliable polling out there. As for Americans rapidly becoming more bigoted, even that poll from 2021 you linked showed a movement of negative 5 points over two years for transgender acceptance in the military. Extrapolate that overall to 2025 for other trans issues, and the numbers look really bad, a basic linear calculation would be negative 10 points on every issue, so 72% against transgender athletes in women’s sports using the numbers from that 2021 poll. Trump won the election, including the popular vote, and was polled to be ahead of Harris on every key issue aside from abortion, so I really do think that your average American has become that more fascist over the past 4 years. Even the “#Resistance” by the liberals right now is 10 times more pathetic than it was in 2016. Just look at the “protests” that took place today.
This is the reality of the situation, it really is that bad. I don’t think it has quite set in yet, but it’s what I’m seeing. Is it a temporary thing to do with Trump, or a permanent change in attitude, that we’ll have to wait and see.
