New Poll Shows Massive Opposition To The Active US Government Censorship Of Trans People

The poll also shows heavy support for transgender youth care, opposition to the military ban, and opposition to the prosecution of teachers affirming trans youth.

Source: Kevin Kiniry

Over the past two months, a wave of executive orders has unleashed a coordinated rollback of transgender rights across the United States. Transgender people have been scrubbed from federal websites, health resources erased, and even the Stonewall National Monument—honoring a protest led in large part by trans activists—was rewritten to celebrate only “LGB rights,” erasing the T entirely. At the same time, healthcare access has been stripped away, passport updates halted, teachers threatened with prosecution for affirming trans youth, service members purged from the military, and trans existence erased in federal protections. Now, a new poll reveals overwhelming public opposition to the Trump administration’s sweeping anti-trans agenda—from censorship to criminalizing support for trans students and more.

A new poll from Data for Progress reveals broad public rejection of the Trump administration’s quiet campaign to erase LGBTQ+ health information from federal websites. According to the data, 52 percent of respondents oppose the removal of information on LGBTQ+ health disparities and nondiscrimination protections, while just 26 percent support it. The numbers reflect overwhelming resistance to the administration’s censorship effort—one that has already seen some reversals in court. In one particularly egregious case, an entire national student health dataset was taken down solely because it included questions about gender identity.

The poll also found significant public opposition to the erasure of transgender people from federal history and language. Respondents opposed removing mentions of transgender people from the Stonewall National Monument website by a 23-point margin, and opposed altering “LGBTQ+” to “LGB” in government materials by 22 points. These changes came after the Trump administration revised the monument’s website to frame the Stonewall uprising as a fight solely for “LGB rights”—a revision that ignores the central role played by transgender and gender nonconforming leaders. Even Sylvia Rivera, a prominent trans activist who helped lead the uprising, had her biography altered to say she fought for “gay and rights”—a revision that’s not only historically dishonest but grammatically incoherent.

The censorship of transgender people from public-facing websites wasn’t the only executive action met with broad public disapproval. The Trump administration’s push to ban transgender healthcare is also deeply unpopular. When asked which statement they agreed with more, a clear majority—55%—said that “families and physicians should be the ones making decisions about transgender youth medical care, not the government,” while just 33% supported government bans on “gender-related care for trans youth.” Among respondents who personally know a transgender person, support for gender affirming care jumped to 65%, with only 30% favoring government intervention.

Perhaps surprisingly, even transgender sports participation rules found support in the latest poll. A plurality—45% of respondents—said they believe local school districts and sports associations, not the federal government, should determine fair participation rules, with 43% answering the opposite. That view may reflect growing unease with the sweeping nature of recent federal bans, which lump sports like darts and disc golf in with swimming and track. Voters may also be reacting to the potential for invasive medical testing and forced genital inspections of girls under expansive, government-mandated bans.

The poll also found overwhelming opposition to Trump’s executive order targeting teachers who support transgender youth. The order suggests that educators who affirm a student’s gender identity could be prosecuted for “facilitating the social transition of a minor student,” framing even the simple act of using a student’s chosen name as “practicing medicine without a license.” But this legal overreach is far out of step with public sentiment: 61% of respondents opposed the policy, while just 27% supported it.

Rounding out the poll’s findings is opposition to the transgender military ban, with just 21% supporting such a policy. The ban was recently blocked in federal court, where the judge described it as “dripping with animus.” That description was no exaggeration: the ban itself asserts that transgender people are inherently lacking in “honor, dignity, and truth.”

The latest polling offers a sharp rebuke to the wave of anti-trans legislation and executive action sweeping across the country. While Trump urges Republicans to double down on targeting transgender people ahead of the next election—and dark money groups flood key races like the Wisconsin Supreme Court with anti-trans ads—these numbers tell a different story. Despite the volume of anti-trans rhetoric, the public isn’t buying the cruelty.