A recent poll from the Napolitan News Service has revealed that nearly three-fourths of voters believe it should be illegal to subject children to transgender medical interventions. The findings underscore a growing pushback against procedures like puberty blockers, hormone treatments, and irreversible surgeries for minors, with opposition surging by 10 points since August. These results suggest that, despite progressive rhetoric, the public isn’t buying into the narrative that such interventions are harmless or necessary.
Notably, the opposition crosses party lines, with 86% of Republicans and even 58% of Democrats standing against allowing minors to pursue gender transitions. The survey, conducted by veteran pollster Scott Rasmussen, reflects a broad consensus among Americans that childhood should not be a testing ground for radical medical experiments. Rasmussen’s poll comes on the heels of a contentious election where cultural issues, particularly transgenderism, played a pivotal role in voters’ decision-making. Many cited concerns over Vice President Kamala Harris’s focus on divisive cultural topics rather than bread-and-butter issues affecting the middle class.
Education has become another flashpoint, with 68% of voters opposing lessons on gender ideology in public schools. Yet in places like Newton, Massachusetts, such lessons are mandated, beginning as early as kindergarten, with parents explicitly barred from opting their children out. Critics argue this reflects a troubling overreach, especially when 73% of voters believe parents should be informed if their child expresses a desire to change names, pronouns, or gender identity. California’s recent law preventing schools from notifying parents in such cases has only deepened the divide, sparking further backlash from conservatives and parental rights advocates.
Republicans have seized on this issue throughout the election cycle, effectively pinning Democrats into a corner. High-profile cases like that of Rep. Vicente Gonzalez Jr., who scrambled to distance himself from his party’s stance, demonstrate the pressure mounting on Democrats. Gonzalez, previously a supporter of the Equality Act, which critics argue enables extreme gender policies, now claims to have never supported sex changes for kids—a pivot that conservatives find both predictable and unconvincing.
President-elect Donald Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance have taken clear positions against what they call “gender insanity.” Trump has pledged to ban gender-altering procedures for minors nationwide, calling it an act of child abuse. Vance, echoing similar sentiments, stated that the idea of chemically or surgically altering a young child’s body is “crazy” and vowed that their administration would put an end to it. Trump has even proposed legislation to prohibit what he terms “child sexual mutilation” in all 50 states, framing the fight as a battle against the “emotional, physical, and chemical abuse” being inflicted on America’s youth.
These developments reveal a stark divide in how America views issues of gender and childhood, with conservative leaders framing their efforts as a stand for sanity, parental rights, and the protection of minors. The question now is how far Democrats are willing to retreat on an issue that increasingly seems like a political liability. If the poll numbers are any indication, the winds of public opinion aren’t blowing in their favor.
