In 2017, Americans were split almost down the middle on the question: “Is gender determined by sex at birth or one’s subjective sense of identity?” Pew Research found back then that the numbers were 53% on the side of biological sex and 45% on the side of “gender identity.” Seven years later, as 2024 comes to a close, that number has shifted significantly to 65% and 34%, respectively.
We’ve seen that play out in a number of ways, one of the most obvious being the 2024 Presidential election. Donald Trump aired ads that called attention to Kamala Harris and her party’s emphasis on gender identity — from men in women’s sports, to using taxpayer dollars to pay for body alteration procedures for prisoners. The New York Times found those ads shifted some voters — especially black and Hispanic men — toward Trump. Political commentators with a finger on the pulse of the culture attribute the unscientific, dangerous focus on gender identity as one of the reasons Trump is now the president-elect.
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