Is This Surprising?

A poll was done by PEW Research and guess what they found about who are more supportive of us, Democrats or Republicans?

Republicans, Democrats have starkly different views on transgender issues
By Anna Brown
November 8, 2017
The American public is fundamentally divided over whether it’s possible for someone to be a gender different from the sex they were assigned at birth, according to a new Pew Research Center survey. The survey comes amid debates over which public bathrooms transgender individuals should use, how they should be recognized on official documents and whether they should serve in the U.S. military.

Overall, roughly half of Americans (54%) say that whether someone is a man or a woman is determined by the sex they were assigned at birth, while 44% say someone can be a man or a woman even if that is different from the sex they were assigned at birth.

Perhaps not surprisingly, considering the widening partisan divide across a variety of issues, Democrats and Republicans have sharply different views on this question. While eight-in-ten Republicans and Republican-leaning independents say that whether someone is a man or a woman is determined by the sex they were assigned at birth, most Democrats and Democratic leaners (64%) take the opposite view and say a person’s gender can be different from the sex they were assigned at birth.

And education had a lot to do with acceptance,

The survey also finds that Democrats with a bachelor’s degree or more education are more likely than other Democrats to say a person’s gender can be different from the sex they were assigned at birth. About three-quarters (77%) of Democrats with a bachelor’s degree or more say this, compared with 60% of Democrats with some college and 57% of those with a high school diploma or less. No such divide exists among Republicans.

And age…

Millennials are somewhat more likely than older generations to say someone can be a man or a woman, even if that is different from the sex they were assigned at birth. Half of Millennials say this, compared with roughly four-in-ten Gen Xers (41%), Boomers (43%) and members of the Silent Generation (37%).

This is not surprising, if you know a person who is trans you are more likely accept us.

The link between knowing someone who is transgender and saying society should be more accepting of transgender people is evident among Republicans and Democrats alike. Among Republicans, 18% of those who know a transgender person say society hasn’t gone far enough in accepting people who are transgender, compared with 10% among those who don’t. The gap is even wider among Democrats: 71% of those who say they know someone who is transgender say society hasn’t gone far enough in accepting transgender people, versus 52% of Democrats who don’t know someone who is transgender.

So the Harvey Milk quote about coming out is true;

Gay brothers and sisters,...You must come out*. Come out... to your parents... I know that it is hard and will hurt them but think about how they will hurt you in the voting booth! Come out to your relatives... come out to your friends... if indeed they are your friends. Come out to your neighbors... to your fellow workers... to the people who work where you eat and shop... come out only to the people you know, and who know you. Not to anyone else.

*I don’t want  to force anyone out, especially if it is not safe, however, as we become more visible the polling number of those people who are on our side will go up as we become more mainstream.