From students’ views on protections for transgender Americans to acceptance on college campuses, here are this week’s top college student insights.
Transgender Rights
The NCAA made headlines this week for choosing to hold softball regionals in Alabama, Arkansas, and Tennessee, which all ban transgender athletes from competing in interscholastic sports. A recent survey of 600 undergraduates finds that a majority (61%) believe the U.S. needs more protections for transgender Americans. Roughly 1 in 6 say there are enough protections for transgender Americans (14%) or they are not sure what the current protections are (16%), while 9% of students say there should be fewer protections. LGBTQ+ students are more likely than straight students to say the U.S. needs more protection for transgender folks (80% vs. 51%), and less likely to say they’re unsure of the current laws (7% vs. 21%).
Students who personally know someone who is transgender are more likely to support increased protections. A majority of students say they either know someone who is transgender (58%) or are transgender themselves (7%). Seven in 10 (70%) students who either know someone or are transgender believe the country needs more protections, compared to 45% of students who don’t know a transgender person.
How do you view the current legal protections for transgender Americans?
When it comes to college campuses, an overwhelming majority of students say their campus is either very (31%) or somewhat (56%) accepting of transgender students. Among LGBTQ+ students specifically, about one-quarter (27%) say their campus is very accepting and (64%) say it’s somewhat accepting.
However, this differs from school to school. An Indiana University student says “trans students get harassed at my school all the time and the university does nothing about it.” By comparison, a student from the University of Miami says, “No one has said anything about it to me directly and it’s been like 2.5 years.”
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Methodology: All surveys were designed and conducted by College Pulse. Interviews were conducted among a sample of full-time and part-time students attending colleges or universities in the U.S. who are part of College Pulse’s American College Student Panel.
