The Center for American Political Studies at Harvard University released the results of a poll taken on May 18 and 19, 2022. Often referred to as the Harvard/Harris poll, it measures sentiment on political and cultural issues every month. In May, pollsters found Americans are not buying into the atomized individuality of the gender identity movement and do not want people to be penalized for not going along.
Almost 60% of respondents believe children should be referred to by the pronoun matching their biological sex. The demographic breakdown of the results highlights the alignment between Republicans and independents and the urban/ non-urban divide. By affiliation, 77% of Republicans and 64% of independent voters want children called by the pronoun that matches their sex. Only 39% of Democrats agree. The majority of Americans who live in urban areas, 53%, believe people should use a child’s preferred pronoun. Approximately two-thirds of suburban and rural voters disagree.
An objection to the use of preferred gender pronouns hovers around 60% for men and women as well as parents and non-parents. When asked if allowing kids to pick their own pronouns was more likely to cause confusion for them or prevent discrimination, 60% feel it will confuse them. The only age group where a majority believe children should be able to pick their pronouns is 18-34. This cohort includes Gen Z where one in five adults report they identify as part of the LBGTQ community. At 20.8%, the LBGTQ identification rate for Gen Z is nearly double that for millennials and almost five times that of Gen X.
Related: Does Anyone Really Believe in This Transgender Stuff?
It is not surprising similar trends appear when those polled are asked about how requirements and penalties should be structured around pronoun use. Democrats and those aged 18-34 think teachers should be required to use a child’s preferred pronouns. By contrast, 79% of Republicans and 67% of independents want teachers to have discretion. More than 60% agree, whether they are parents or not, and in this case, even 54% of city dwellers want teachers to be provided flexibility in gender pronoun usage.
Nearly three-quarters believe legal penalties for using the wrong pronoun are a step too far. The same number thinks that failing to use someone’s preferred pronoun should not be classified as illegal discrimination. Perhaps this is because Americans are beginning to understand the possibilities are endless. Recently, the Twitter account Libs of TikTok posted a young woman whose user name indicates she thinks she is a blue fairy explaining what “cake gender” is:
People are identifying as cake gender. pic.twitter.com/9TTGMEjX7t
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) May 11, 2022
In the video above, the young woman seems to be assigning a “gender” based on personality characteristics and normal emotions that are not confined to a particular biological sex. In other words, because a person feels “warm and sweet” they can identify as the xenogender “cake”. Perhaps as a society, we need to be asking ourselves why our children and young adults are confusing emotions with a linguistic device used to denote biological sex until five minutes ago.
Have we failed to teach them that behavior, attitudes, and physical characteristics occur on a normal distribution? As clinical psychologist, author, and professor Jordan Peterson has often noted, there have always been effeminate men and masculine women. The distribution has a high degree of variation, with results falling within two standard deviations away from the mean generally considered normal. This variation holds throughout the entire range of human behavior, physical abilities, cognitive function, and personality characteristics.
From the results of this poll, it appears most Americans understand this normal variation on some level. Every emotion and characteristic the young lady discusses falls within a normal range, yet she is trying to convince her audience they are so unique that describing them requires a change in the way we use language by adding to the hundreds of “genders” trans advocates want to see recognized.
Americans do not appear to want to play along. Yet, the Democrats continue to push a radical trans agenda. The Biden administration recently announced it would cut free and reduced lunch funding to school districts that do not let boys use the girls’ bathroom. If they continue to push, they only risk alienating a large majority of Americans.
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