NC residents see gender identity education issue as insignificant but support bill limiting it, poll shows

A slim majority of North Carolinians think education about gender identity and sexual orientation for the state’s youngest students is either a nonissue or an insignificant one hyped by politicians. But most also support a ban on teaching those subjects in some classrooms, according to results of a WRAL News poll released Friday.

Forty-five percent said they would strongly support a ban, while 13% said they somewhat supported a ban. Twenty percent of respondents said they strongly opposed a ban, 13% said they somewhat opposed it, and 9% percent said they weren’t sure.

The survey of 1,100 North Carolina residents was conducted in partnership with SurveyUSA between June 8 and 12. It reported a credibility interval of 3.8 percentage points. A credibility interval is similar to margin of error but takes into account more factors and is considered by some pollsters to be a more accurate measurement of statistical certainty.

Thirty-three percent of respondents identified as Republican, while 29% identified as Democratic. Thirty-two percent identified as independent.

Political ideology was a strong indicator of response to concerns about LGBTQ topics in K-3 classrooms. Fifty-six percent of Republicans considered those concerns a real issue, but only 26% of Democrats and 34% of independents did. Income was also a strong indicator: Among those making more than $80,000 a year, 47% said it was a real issue, compared to just 34% of those making less than $40,000 a year.

Supporters of the proposed legislation, House Bill 755, have said that these issues aren’t appropriate for young students. Sponsors say it’s meant to keep parents involved and in charge of what's happening with their children, and that it empowers parents to set what they consider to be more age-appropriate guidelines for their children. They call it the “Parents’ Bill of Rights.”

“We don’t need a poll to know that North Carolinians want our children to focus on the basics in the classroom,” Republican Senate Leader Phil Berger said in a statement on Friday. “What this poll confirms is that people understand that the subjects of gender identity and sexual orientation are not appropriate for our youngest and most impressionable students. The Parents’ Bill of Rights has broad public support and should become law.”

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Jasmine Beach-Ferrara, executive director of the Campaign for Southern Equality, said the proposed legislation is an effort to play politics with LGBTQ issues. Respondents to the poll “see this for what it is—a political ploy,” she said in a statement.

“For decades, especially during election seasons, the far right has relentlessly targeted our community for attack,” Beach-Ferrara said. “Extreme lawmakers often try to find the most divisive wedge issues they can. … It’s happening again now, and this time they are targeting youth, which is particularly cruel.”

Instruction about LGBTQ issues has no place in the classroom because the issues are “confusing and harmful” to young students, said Tami Fitzgerald, executive director of the NC Values Coalition.

“Obviously, the large majority of people support legislation that protects children from indoctrination in LGBT and other agenda-driven issues, because it’s happening in our schools at an alarming rate,” she said in an email. “... We need to stick with teaching basic academic subjects like reading and math.”

Anne Sutkowi-Hemstreet is founder of Rainbow Collective for Change, which helps teachers and parents teach LGBTQ diversity lessons to pre-K and elementary school students. She thinks the majority wants to ban these lessons because they’re being misrepresented.

“There is no discussion of sex,” Sutkowi-Hemstreet told WRAL News. “We don't even use ‘sexual orientation.’ That's all something that people are kind of making up as how it's discussed in this age group. But that is not what this is about.”

Sutkowi-Hemstreet says children ages 3 through 8 are forming their identities and their attitudes about people who are different from them. She says her group’s lessons teach, “in a developmentally appropriate way, developing self-awareness, positive self-identity, talking about who you are, having pride in who you are, and learning that everybody is different, and we're all the same in some ways, too.”

“That's how you develop empathy,” she added.

WRAL News also polled residents on whether they would support banning transgender students from competing on sports teams that match their gender identity. Such measures have been passed by lawmakers in eight states over the past year. The poll shows support for a ban in North Carolina as well.

Fifty percent of respondents said they would strongly or somewhat support banning transgender athletes from school sports teams, while 36% said they would strongly or somewhat oppose such a ban.

The partisan divide was again notable, but age also proved to be a strong indicator. Among respondents 18 to 34, only 38% would support a ban, compared with 64% of voters 65 and older.

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Fitzgerald supports such a ban because, she said, people who are born male are faster and stronger than people who are born female. “No amount of hormone therapy can undo all those advantages,” she said.

“Allowing males to compete in girls’ sports destroys fair competition and women’s athletic opportunities,” Fitzgerald added. “When we ignore biological reality, girls get hurt.”

“It's harmful when you don't have those team opportunities, those opportunities to learn how to work together, build together and move toward a common goal,” said Clapp, who works with transgender youth. “That's really essential in human development. And by denying children that, we're denying so much.”

“People are afraid of trans folks. I think it's that simple,” Clapp added. “People think that there’s some movement to ruin America, when it's simply a group of people trying to live their best lives. “You have people who just want to wake up every day, go to work, eat food, be happy, be in love and go to bed.”