Gallup: Most Americans support transgender in military

Demonstrators hold up signs in support of transgender troops at a press conference on Capitol Hill calling on President Donald Trump to reverse his new policy banning transgender troops in the military in Washington, D.C., on July 26, 2017. File Photo by Erin Schaff/UPI

June 22 (UPI) — A new Gallup poll found most Americans support openly transgender men and women serving in the military despite President Donald Trump’s ban.

Seventy-one percent of Americans were in support of allowing them to serve a month after Trump’s ban on transgender service members went into effect amid legal challenges, the poll showed.

The policy, which went into effect April 12, bans those who’ve received transitional therapies from joining the military and forces members of the military to serve under their biological gender.

The poll conducted May 15-30 was before a recent U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision that allowed the ban to stand for the time being, but called for a policy review that could affect its standing.

During a debate on a $1 trillion spending package Tuesday, the Democratic-controlled House voted to block funding for the ban, but the measure’s unlikely to pass the GOP-controlled Senate.

Trump announced the ban on transgender service members in a series of tweets in July 2017.

Polling shows that Republicans are less likely than other political parties to support allowing transgender men and women to serve in the U.S. military. Only 43 percent of Republicans polled were in favor of them openly serving compared to 88 percent of Democrats and 78 percent of Independents.

All other key demographic group, except Republicans, surveyed broadly across gender, military service and age, also showed majority support of openly transgender men and women serving in the military.

Fifty-six percent of military veterans were in favor of them serving and 73 percent of non-veterans.

Women and men, and various ages, also showed majority support, with women showing more support than men, and younger people showing more support than older people. Seventy-nine percent of women were in favor compared with 64 percent of men and 84 percent of young adults, ages 18-29, were in favor, compared with 73 percent of adults ages 30-49 and 66 percent of adults age 50 or older.

Trump has moved to undo the end of the U.S. military’s ban on transgender troops and the transgender bathroom policy allowing public school students to use restrooms and locker rooms that correspond with their gender identity in 2016 under then President Barack Obama.

However, Gallup found that Americans were split on restroom policies for transgender people back in 2016 and remain so, with a slight majority, 51 percent, still saying that people should have to use a restroom based on birth gender rather than gender identity.

Results are based on a random sample of 1,017 adults with a margin of error of 4 percentage points.

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