Amid the ongoing storm of bills targeting trans people in the United States, a new report from the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) shows that Americans generally support trans rights — but that the media they consume is a strong indicator of their views.
According to the report, nearly three quarters (72%) of a large sample of surveyed American adults indicated their support for trans rights, and believed that trans people should be able to live without “violence and discrimination.” A similarly high percentage (66%) agreed that trans people should have access to gender-affirming healthcare.
But these rates of support dropped dramatically when it came to adults who generally consumed right-leaning news and media sources, which the HRC notes often foreground misinformation about the lived experiences and healthcare needs of trans and nonbinary people. Of adults who consumed no right-wing media sources on a regular basis, a majority (58%) agreed that “transgender people seek equal treatment under the law.” But when it came to adults who onlyconsumed right-wing media sources, only 31% believed the same statement.
View more
More than a third of that same group also believed that “transgender people want more rights than is fair” — double the percentage of those who did not consume right-wing media.
Perhaps most troublingly, a majority of those who only consumed right-wing media — 51% — agreed with the statement that “we would better serve transgender people by helping them to live as the sex they were born” — the same notion that underpins the practice of anti-LGBTQ+ conversion therapy.
Advocates noted that the report underscores the importance of positive media visibility and representation for trans and nonbinary communities — and that recent increases in visibility have not necessarily been beneficial.
“Increased visibility and corresponding misinformation, especially from right-leaning media outlets, have underlined the need for representation in all areas to be not only numerous, but authentic to the lives and stories of transgender and nonbinary people,” said Jay Brown, HRC Senior Vice President of Programs, Research, and Training, in a press release.
“The data shows that the media must be more inclusive of members of the transgender and nonbinary [community] to assist in the development of positive and open-minded opinions for audiences everywhere, especially the large number of people who know nothing about trans people and their lives,” Brown added.
In the lead-up to Thursday’s Trans Day of Visibility, trans advocacy groups have called for increased awareness and advocacy around the onslaught of anti-trans bills in statehouses, and the larger right-wing trend of anti-trans rhetoric and misinformation. Conservative bias in algorithms on social media sites like Facebook and TikTokfurther exacerbates the problem of anti-trans misinformation, which can inform policies from the statehouse to the national level.
