CV NEWS FEED // Some experts are calling foul on a recent poll that seemed to indicate that a large majority of Americans supported “gender transition” medicine and surgery for children.
“Do you support or oppose legislation that would prohibit gender transition-related medical care for minors?” the PBS NewsHour/NPR/Marist poll asked.
According to the pollsters, a massive 66% of all adults opposed, with only 28% supporting. More surprisingly — and, critics argue, unbelievably — an even higher proportion of Republicans opposed. In fact, the percentage of Republicans who opposed (70%) was greater than that of Democrats (69%).
If accurate, these numbers would indicate that a supermajority of Americans support invasive “trans” medical procedures on children (from the administration of puberty-blocking drugs that could leave patients sterile to the surgical removal of genitalia and breasts) — and that support for these controversial practices is actually stronger on the political right than on the left.
According to Jon Schweppe, however, it would be absurd to believe such claims, even if PBS and NPR suggest their poll proves them.
Schweppe, who serves as Director of Policy and Government Affairs for the American Principles Project (APP), pointed out that his organization “has spent millions on campaign ads on these issues. We use treatment/control groups to track movement. Our ads definitely work.”
It is the results of those control group questions, which APP has tracked and used for some time now, that make Schweppe confident the Marist poll cannot be accurate.
APP asked registered voters in two states and nationwide whether they agreed with the following statement:
Children who say they identify as transgender should be allowed to undergo cosmetic surgeries to resemble the opposite sex or take off-label medications and hormones that can make them sterile while they are under the age of 18?
Nationally, 54.57% “strongly” disagreed, and 12.37% “somewhat” disagreed. Only 8.03% “strongly” agreed, with 12.54% “somewhat” agreeing.
APP found even stronger opposition to child “gender transitions” with another question, which they posed to registered voters in 11 states:
Should children who say they identify as transgender be allowed to undergo physical sex change surgeries or chemical treatments while they are under the age of 18?
The “No”s held huge majorities in all 11 states:
Arizona: 75.29%
California: 74.83%
Georgia: 81%
Kentucky: 84%
Idaho: 85.67%
Iowa: 77.14%
Michigan: 79.43%
North Carolina: 83.57%
Pennsylvania: 78.43%
Texas: 80.53%
Wisconsin: 74.83%
The PBS NewsHour/NPR/Marist poll is “safe to ignore,” tweeted Schweppe, suggesting that its wording misled respondents into answering inaccurately by mistake.
“The questions were loaded with euphemisms and deliberately worded to confuse those polled,” he concluded.