Republicans and Democrats are split on transgender rights — and it's impacting swing states

Republicans don't support transgender rights — and in other news, water is wet.

An annual survey tracking the attitudes of voters in Ohio ,released Wednesday, found that a majority of the state's voters oppose protections for trans people. For context, Republicans outnumber Democrats by nearly twice as much in Ohio, where unaffiliated voters are also more likely to vote in line with conservatives.

Nearly three-quarters (72.6 percent) of Ohio voters opposed gender-affirming care for minors, according to Baldwin Wallace University’s Ohio Pulse Poll, with an even higher amount (73.4 percent) opposing policies allowing trans minors to compete on sports teams that match their gender identity, both of which have been banned in the state.

The majority also supported bathroom bans, with 66.3 percent opposing trans people using public bathrooms that match their gender identity. In addition, 56.3 percent supported policies that would forcibly out trans students to their guardians.

When broken down by party, only 33.4 percent of Democrats strongly opposed gender-affirming care for minors, compared to 77 percent of Republicans. About the same strongly opposed trans athletes playing on teams aligning with their gender identity, at 37 percent of Democrats and 77.7 percent of Republicans.

The report surveyed 345 conservatives, 360 moderates, 163 liberals, and 39 who identified as "not sure." There are 817,063 registered Democrats in the state, according to party affiliation data from the Ohio Secretary of State, in comparison to 1,508,641 Republicans. There are 5,734,850 unaffiliated registered voters, with twice as many switching to Republican from Democrat since last year's report.

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Despite this, a majority of Ohio's voters (60.9 percent) still support teaching students in sixth through 12th grades about sexual orientation, and 43.2 percent support teaching those grades about gender identity, with just slightly more opposing teaching about gender identity at 49.8 percent.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently found that 3.3 percent of high school students in the country reported identifying as transgender in 2023, with another 2.2 percent stating they are questioning. Trans students had the highest likelihood of experiencing violence, poor mental health, suicidal thoughts and behaviors, and unstable housing in comparison to cisgender students.

The CDC recommended that schools implement policies supportive of LGBTQ+ students — policies opposite to those Ohio legislators have forced upon institutions — explicitly stating that when schools do so, "all students experience better mental health."