While countless politicians and media outlets believe that men competing in women’s sports is something everyone should accept, their views don't reflect what most Americans believe about this issue.
A recent Gallup poll found that 69 percent of Americans believe that athletes should only be able to compete on sports teams that correspond with their birth gender. When Gallup released the results of the same survey two years ago, 62 percent held this position.
Likewise, 26 percent believe that athletes should not be allowed to play on teams that match the gender they think they switched to, down from 34 percent in 2021.
The rise in transgender athletes negatively affecting the makeup of sports, particularly on the women’s side, likely contributed to this trend. After seeing swimmer Lia Thomas and a host of other males competing in women’s sports - and unsurprisingly leaving real female athletes in their dust - more Americans can see that letting men compete against women never leads to anything good.
But the poll added another series of interesting questions. Gallup asked participants if their answers would change if they personally knew someone who was transgender. 64 percent still said that they believe it's wrong if athletes choose a team based on the gender they claimed to be, an 11 point rise from 2021.
To put the nail in the coffin of this argument, the last question participants had to answer was if they believed it was morally wrong for someone to “switch” genders, with 55 percent saying yes.
Of course, the survey doesn’t cover all of America. But it does go to show that a large portion of Americans do take issue with the transgender movement, however silent they may be.
