As various parental rights cases make their way through the courts, a Monmouth poll released this week showed a sizable majority of New Jersey adults believe schools should inform parents when a student asks to be identified by a different gender.
Three in four New Jerseyans (77%) feel middle and high schools should be required to notify parents if their child wants to be identified as a different gender than what is on their school registration. The poll released Aug. 22 comes just days after a state judge issued a temporary injunction last week in a court case involving a handful of school districts that recently enacted this requirement.
Even if this notification is not required, 55% of respondents say it would be better for the school to let the parents know of a student’s gender identity request while 41% say this is something the schools should let the student and their parents deal with on their own.
School Parents
That percentage rises for parents of minors—81% say schools should require notification of gender identity requests by students and 59% feel schools should still let parents know even if it is not a requirement.
The partisan disparity on this issue is also evident on the question of requiring parental notification for student gender identity requests. This action receives majority support from all groups, but ranges from 92% of Republicans, to 81% of Independents, to 61% of Democrats.
Political Split
If such notification is not required, though, most Democrats (58%) feel schools should leave this issue to the student and their parents to deal with. Most Republicans (76%) and Independents (58%) say schools should still let parents know if their student makes such a request.
The issue of parental rights in education, pushed by GOP lawmakers, has focused on the teaching of and politics of sexual education. The Jersey Shore polling outfit found a majority of New Jerseyans, including parents, approve of teaching about gender identity in high school, but are less supportive of doing so in middle school and are broadly opposed to discussing this in elementary school.
Just under half (45%) of New Jersey adults say the state’s public schools are doing too much when it comes to teaching about gender identity. This compares to 23% who say schools are doing the right amount and 16% who say they are not doing enough.
Sex Ed in High School
While 60% of New Jerseyans approve of teaching students in grades 9 through 12 about “the range of ways people express their gender,” support dips below a majority for doing this in grades 6 through 8 (42%) and drops to less than one-quarter for grades 1 through 5 (22%). Parent and nonparent opinion is similar on these questions.
“It does seem clear that a large cross section of New Jerseyans are uncomfortable with discussing these issues in elementary school even though the state has different gender identity education standards for various grade levels,” said Patrick Murray, director of the independent Monmouth University Polling Institute. “An open question is to what extent those distinctions are understood by the public.”
As for transgender recognition and accommodation issues that have been in the news recently, 58% say transgender students should use the bathroom facilities designated as “boys” or “girls” that match their assigned gender at birth rather than their current gender identity.
Transgender Bathroom, Athletics
Conversely, 28% feel transgender students should use the bathroom that matches their gender identity and 14% are unsure how this should be handled. However, a majority of New Jerseyans (55%) do support providing gender-inclusive bathrooms in schools for students of any gender to use.
Poll results are similar for placing students into gender-segregated sex education classes as 54% of state residents would require transgender students to take sex education with students who are the same sex as they were assigned at birth, while 27% say transgender students should be able to attend sex education classes with students of their same gender identity. Another 19% are unsure of their opinion on this.
When it comes to student athletics, a majority of the state feels that transgender students should play on teams with students of the same gender as their birth-assigned sex. These results are similar in separate questions about participation on sports teams for transgender students who were recorded as male (64%) or female (59%) on their birth certificates.
Transgender Interactions
“Most New Jerseyans, like most Americans, do not recognize transgender identity in a broad sense. This is reflected in how they view these issues being dealt with in schools,” said Murray.
In general, 36% of Garden State residents feel that someone can be a man or a woman even if that is different from the sex they were assigned at birth.
Just over half of New Jersey adults report knowing someone who is transgender, including 22% who are close to a transgender person and 31% who have a transgender acquaintance.
The survey statistically insignificant differences in opinion about school handling of gender identity issues based on parents’ connection to someone who is transgender. The biggest difference is on the question of providing gender-inclusive bathrooms in schools, which is supported by 65% of parents who know a transgender person and 50% of parents who do not.
Partisan, Gender Divide
There are slight differences in statewide public opinion based on gender and age, with women and adults under 35 years old being somewhat more supportive of transgender recognition in education.
The poll finds that partisan identity is a much more influential factor than any other demographic, including knowing someone who is transgender. In general, 63% of New Jersey Democrats, compared with just 32% of independents and only 8% of Republicans, believe that a person’s gender can be different from the sex they were assigned at birth.
On how schools handle this issue, the vast majority of Republicans oppose teaching about gender identity at all grade levels—elementary (97%), middle (86%) and high (69%) schools. This stands in contrast to majorities of Democrats (82%) and Independents (61%) who support teaching this at the high school level and a majority of Democrats (68%) who approve discussing these issues in middle school.
Personal Experience
Independents have mixed views about teaching gender identity at the middle school level (40% approve and 56% disapprove) and most are opposed to doing this in younger grades (78% disapprove). Democrats are divided on teaching gender identity at the elementary school level (41% approve and 56% disapprove).
There is no significant difference in opinion on these questions for Republicans based on whether they know someone who is transgender and the same is true among independents for the most part. However, personal relationships do seem to influence Democrats’ views.
For example, Democrats who do not know a transgender person (51%) are more likely than those who do (26%) to feel that schools should notify parents about a student’s gender identity request even when not required to do so. Democrats who do not personally know a transgender person are also significantly less likely to support teaching about gender identity at the elementary and middle school levels.
Dug In
Just under half (45%) of New Jerseyans say their opinions about how transgender issues are handled in schools are strongly held and unlikely to change. Another 40% say they are open to changing their minds about their opinion and 15% are unsure.
Republicans (57%) are more likely than Democrats (42%) and Independents (41%) to say their views are firmly set. More specifically, those who disapprove of gender identity education at the middle and high school levels are more likely than others to say their views are unlikely to change.
However, New Jerseyans who favor parental notification and oppose gender identity education at the elementary school level are no more likely to have strongly held views than those who hold the opposite view on these questions.
Who is Paying Attention
“There is more agreement on how gender identity education should be handled at the younger grade levels, but it seems the public debate is being framed by those who are opposed to gender identity recognition at any age. This can muddy the waters for those who may hold a more nuanced view but are most concerned about what is going on at the elementary school level,” said Murray.
Other poll findings show that 38% of the New Jersey public has been paying a lot of attention to how gender identity and transgender issues are being handled in the state’s public schools, 41% are paying a little attention and 21% are paying no attention.
Republicans (49%), who tend to be more strongly opposed to recognizing transgender identity in schools, are more likely than Independents (37%) and Democrats (31%) to be paying a lot of attention to this issue.
To sum it all up: a majority of NJ citizens are ignorant and/scared to deal rationally with this issue and think if you educate young people about it their kids may “catch it”. Many think explaining this to kids is “recruitment” because no such thing really exists and that it’s being “advocated” by deviants (“that’s right!” I hear the chorus). Kids who have “religious nut” or intolerant parents and are afraid to open up to them fearful they will be sent for “conversion therapy” or other forms of sanctioned religious torture will now have no one to lean on since a sympathetic understanding teacher will now be required to rat out a kid under the questionable notion under this specific situation of “parental rights”. The result will be in some circumstances, punishment, physical and religious, and outright rejection of a child in need of an ally. Kids who don’t want their parents to know about this almost always know what the terrible reaction will be from their rigid, ignorant and intolerant parents especially, based on this poll, if they are Republicans. “I have a right to know if my kid is flirting with this woke sex nonsense so I can beat it out of him before it’s too late.” Good times!
Rat Phil Murphy knows best ?