Gallup: Most Americans want "birth gender" to determine sports access

AP Photo/Pat Eaton-Robb, File

“Birth gender” presumably replaces “biology” or “science” in this new Gallup poll, but it’s still a welcome reminder of common sense. Womens’ sports require restriction to biological females, according to a large and broad majority of Americans. The only majority group opposing this obvious truth are … exactly who you’d guess:

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New polling data released by Gallup on Tuesday found that a majority of Americans believe transgender athletes should play on sports teams that match the gender they were assigned at birth.

According to Gallup’s survey, 62 percent of Americans believe trans athletes should only be permitted to play on teams that align with their birth gender while 34 percent said they should be allowed to play on teams matching their gender identity.

Democrats were the only subgroup in the survey in which a majority said trans athletes should be able to play on teams matching their gender identity.

Gallup’s top-line question in this survey focused on transgender service in the military, which still remains broadly popular (66%), although slightly off the peak in 2019 (71%). Republicans have remained unchanged on transgender military service, split evenly at 43%, but support among independents dropped 12 points — while landing at 66% nonetheless. Support dropped in every demo except GOP voters while remaining in the majority in every demo.

Even with that still-positive approach to transgender military service, the same sample strongly opposes males competing as females in sports … and presumably the other way around as well, even though it’s much less of an issue. It’s one thing to give people the opportunity to serve if they otherwise qualify for enlistment. It’s another entirely to allow people with clear biological advantages to distort the entire raison d’etre of womens’ sports:

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Gallup doesn’t display the ideological demos in this graphic, but reports that 63% of self-identified liberals support “gender identity” access. However, only 34% of moderates do the same, and “moderates” in polling demos usually lean pretty heavily toward liberal positions.

The rest of the demos tell a pretty surprising tale, given the media’s generally credulous treatment of the “gender identity” argument in sports. Perhaps the most telling demos are the age categories. Young adults below 30 support biology and science on this issue by nearly a 2:1 margin, and the gap is even wider in the next older cohort. These are the same demos where progressives have made gains over the past decade and expect to eventually gain electoral majorities based on these populations. They’re not buying this part of the progressive agenda, and perhaps that might be an opening for common sense on other issues — economy, trade, and so on.

Or perhaps it’s just common sense. We can either have a place for women to compete fairly against each other, or force women to compete against men in sports where their biology puts them at disadvantages. The former is equality, and the latter leads to exclusion. And most Americans have figured that out already, even if Democrats and the media haven’t.

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