Nearly two-thirds of adults in the United States say they would be comfortable if their child came out as lesbian, gay or bisexual, according to a new survey, but only half would be comfortable with having a transgender or nonbinary child.
The poll released Thursday by The Trevor Project, a nonprofit group focused on suicide prevention and mental health for LGBTQ and questioning youth, analyzed overall knowledge, understanding and comfort regarding sexual orientation and gender identity among U.S. adults. More than 2,200 respondents answered questions on family acceptance, personal knowledge of LGBTQ people, as well as the usage of pronouns and LGBTQ identity terms, such as “queer,” “pansexual” and “nonbinary.”
The survey found that while two-thirds of adults reported personally knowing a person who identifies as gay (69%) or lesbian (65%), only 29% said they knew at least one transgender person.
That figure is even lower for nonbinary people, those whose gender identity or expression is neither male nor female. Fewer than one in five (17%) U.S. adults reported knowing at least one such person.
“These findings ... underscore how badly trans and nonbinary voices are needed in media and in statehouses across the country,” Sam Ames, director of advocacy and government affairs for The Trevor Project, told the Daily News.
Ames was referring to an explosion of laws and measures targeting the LGBTQ community — especially transgender youth — that are making their way through state legislatures.
According to the Human Rights Campaign, last year saw a record 26 anti-LGBTQ bills signed into law across 10 states. This year, there are at least 320 anti-LGBTQ bills pending in state legislatures. More than half of them specifically target trans youth.
“We’ve come a long way toward public understanding of the full, beautiful spectrum of sexual orientation,” Ames said. “But when it comes to gender identity, we have a lot of work to do.”
Awareness of gender-neutral pronouns, such as they/them, can help adults to better understand and support their transgender or nonbinary child, the data suggests.
Those who were unaware of gender-neutral pronouns were twice as likely to lack confidence in their ability to understand and support their transgender and/or nonbinary child.
Some 72% of adults said they are confident that they would be able to understand and support their child if they came out as trans or nonbinary.
In a prior survey on LGBTQ youth mental health, the Trevor Project interviewed more than 35,000 young LGBTQ respondents and found that an “overwhelming majority” of them had reported recent symptoms of generalized anxiety disorder or major depressive disorder in the past year.
Nearly half said that they wanted to get mental health care in the past 12 months, but weren’t able to access it, while 42% of them “seriously considered attempting suicide in the past year,” and more than half of transgender and nonbinary youth considered taking their own lives.
“Knowing how vital a parent’s love and support is for suicide prevention, it’s encouraging to see a majority of adults express comfort with having LGBTQ kids,” said Amit Paley, the organization’s CEO and executive director.
“Ultimately, these findings leave me feeling hopeful,” Ames told The News, adding that the data shows that “career-minded politicians pushing (anti-LGBTQ) policies are in the minority. The majority of adults support young LGBTQ people. The majority of people are on the right side of history.”
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