Since turning into president, Donald Trump has aggressively sought to meet his marketing campaign promise to reverse the Biden administration’s safety of transgender People.
His administration decreed that the federal authorities will recognize only two genders and banned transgender Americans from serving in the military. Trump has additionally restricted federal funds for hospitals that perform gender-affirming care.
Trump shouldn’t be alone in attacking the rights of transgender People. In 2025, 53 payments have been launched within the U.S. Congress and over 900 payments have been launched in 49 states that intention to restrict the rights of transgender People in schooling, well being care and athletics, in keeping with the Trans Legislation Tracker.
While legal and ethical questions remain about these efforts, limiting the rights of transgender People appears to get pleasure from help amongst a majority of People.
For instance, support for restricting the ability of medical professionals from offering gender-affirming care to minors has risen from 46% in 2022 to 56% in 2025, in keeping with the Pew Analysis Heart.
We wished to know what elements contribute to majority help amongst People for these measures. We discovered that authoritarian attitudes – the will for social conformity and an aversion to distinction – play an essential position in People’ willingness to limit transgender rights.
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Preferring conformity, suppressing social distinction
A number of civil rights organizations, pro-democracy think tanks and scholars have lately argued that govt and legislative efforts to restrict the rights of transgender People replicate a bigger authoritarian flip within the nation’s politics.
Right here, we check with authoritarianism not as a kind of political system or the traits of a pacesetter, however quite as an individual’s desire for social conformity and want to suppress social distinction.
In accordance with this angle, the assault on transgender rights is meant to enchantment to People with authoritarian inclinations. As seen in authoritarian regimes such as Russia and Turkey, political leaders first mobilize their residents on the premise of their want to suppress transgender people as a way to advance a broader motion to undermine democracy and prohibit the rights of different teams that fail to evolve to majority values.
Whereas this perspective is quickly gaining media coverage, there hasn’t but been arduous proof that authoritarians are notably supportive of anti-trans laws. Our aim was to evaluate the hyperlink between authoritarian attitudes and help for measures that prohibit transgender rights.
We’re political scientists who examine the position of authoritarianism in American politics and who field polls that explore Americans’ views on various urgent points.
In April 2025, we fielded a nationally consultant survey of 1,000 American adults, asking about their perceptions of the primary months of the second Trump presidency, their views towards varied teams in society, and their coverage preferences. We additionally requested them for his or her views about restrictions on the availability of gender-affirming care to transgender People.
Right here’s how we analyzed and interpreted their responses.
Conformity, obedience, uniformity
Authoritarianism is defined by public opinion scholars as a person’s predisposition towards conformity, obedience and uniformity and an aversion to range, distinction and particular person autonomy.
To measure authoritarianism, students use a scale that asks respondents to specific their preferences for a spread of child-rearing practices. The dimensions asks whether or not a respondent tends to choose youngsters who’re obedient, effectively behaved and effectively mannered or youngsters who’re impartial, inventive and thoughtful. Those that are likely to favor obedient youngsters are scored as having extra authoritarian views.
Youngster-rearing preferences appear to be unrelated to attitudes about conformity in society. However there’s good purpose to consider that an grownup who prefers conformity, obedience and uniformity in youngsters additionally needs the identical in society at massive.
Political psychologists have used this scale to help explain Americans’ support for the war on terrorism, their racial attitudes, views on gender equality and immigration attitudes.
This work persistently reveals that people who’re much less authoritarian usually tend to help insurance policies that acknowledge various views. Those that rank excessive on authoritarianism choose insurance policies that spotlight social unity and conformity.
Thus, we anticipated that People with extra authoritarian attitudes would extra strongly help state legal guidelines that search to limit transgender People’ entry to gender-affirming care.
We discover proof that that is certainly the case.
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‘Not a sideshow’
Consistent with other polling on this issue, our survey discovered that slightly over one-third of People – 36% – categorical help for laws that might make offering gender-affirming medical care to transgender youth against the law. Among the many remaining respondents, 38% expressed opposition, and 26% expressed ambivalence towards this proposal.
We checked out help for banning gender-affirming care by degree of authoritarianism. We discovered clear variations between probably the most and least authoritarian People.
Amongst those that rating highest on the authoritarian scale, 46% categorical help for this ban, with 18% in opposition. The remaining 36% responded “neither help nor oppose” this ban. Analyzing the views of People who exhibit the least authoritarian views, we discover that whereas 21% help these bans, 61% oppose them and 18% expressed an ambivalent view.
Authoritarianism stays an essential contributor to People’ help for a ban on gender-affirming look after transgender youth, even after we take into consideration different concerns that affect this perspective.
Republican partisanship, conservative ideology and religiosity all improve help for a ban on gender-affirming care. After accounting for these elements, in addition to for traits equivalent to schooling, revenue, age and understanding a transgender individual, extra authoritarian individuals are nonetheless extra prone to help the ban.
Many state legislatures and the U.S. Congress are contemplating laws to limit the rights of transgender People.
The findings from our survey recommend that whereas partisanship, ideology and religiosity all play key roles in explaining the recognition of those insurance policies, a lacking piece of the puzzle is authoritarianism.
Given their aversion to range and distinction and their desire for the established order, People with authoritarian inclinations probably consider that transgender folks pose a menace to the social order. Thus, they’re extra probably than People low in authoritarianism to help insurance policies that search to limit transgender rights as a way to restore social conformity.
It’s not clear whether or not the passage of anti-transgender insurance policies alone will lead the nation to show away from a largely various and open democracy towards a extra closed and illiberal society. However the combat over transgender rights shouldn’t be a sideshow in American politics. As an alternative, it is likely one of the first of many battles over range and distinction that may decide the nation’s political future.
