Majority Of Voters Back Legislation That Would Require Schools To Tell Parents About Students’ Gender Transitions
Reagan Reese on March 21, 2023
Approximately 71% of registered voters are in favor of legislation that would require schools to inform parents about their students’ gender transitions, according to a poll by Parents Defending Education (PDE), an organization focused on parental rights.
About 81% registered Republican voters and 63% of registered Democratic voters back bills mandating that schools alert parents if their child wants to change their name or pronouns at school, according to the PDE poll. Approximately 75% of registered voters support legislation that would require students to have parental permission in order to change their gender at school.
“Parents from all sides of political spectrum, income and educational levels, ethnic and racial group overwhelmingly agree these are long term psychological and medical decision where parents must be involved,” Mailyn Salabarria, director of community engagement at PDE, said in a press release. “Education officials at all levels and policymakers should take note: we are the parents, we all want the best for our children, and we are not going anywhere anytime soon.”
About 24% of registered voters agreed with the statement, “parents are not entitled to know their kids’ identities” and that the knowledge of that information “must be earned,” the poll showed. Approximately 83% of registered Republican voters, 74% of registered Independent voters and 49% of registered Democratic voters disagreed with the statement.
A majority of registered voters, 71%, believe that schools should not withhold information regarding a student’s gender identity from their parents, the poll stated. Of the registered voters surveyed, 74% said that schools should not help students secretly transition genders.
The Capitol Research Center (CRC) conducted the poll, surveying 1,600 registered voters from March 15-20 with a 2.45% margin of error.
The poll comes as schools across the nation have policies in place to allow students to transition genders without parental permission; eight of the nation’s 20 largest school districts, which together enroll 2.5 million students, do not require administration to notify parents when students change their name and pronouns. Some of those major school systems, including the New York City Department of Education, Los Angeles Unified School District, Chicago Public Schools and Fairfax County Public Schools, require parental permission to dispense over-the-counter medication to students but not for gender changes.
“School districts across the country have gotten over their skis by drafting and implementing policies that blatantly exclude parents from important decisions about their child’s education,” Caroline Moore, vice president of PDE, said in a press release. “Our polling shows, unequivocally, that parents should be the principal decision makers for the education of their children.”
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