One in three Americans think that being transgender is a sin, study reveals
One-third of people in the US think that being transgender is a sin, new research has shown.
The study, performed by Ipsos, also showed that one-third of Americans think that trans people have a mental illness.
No western nation reported higher percentages.
It was also revealed that Americans were “the most likely to say that society has gone too far in allowing people to dress and live as one sex even though they were born another,” at 36 percent.
People in the US were also found to be the most likely to report that they would “use the pronoun of the transgender person’s birth.”
These results are especially troubling, considering that another survey earlier this month discovered that there were four times more trans teenagers in the US than previously thought.
It found that almost 2,200 identified as trans, which includes terms such as non-binary, gender nonconforming and genderfluid.
That works out at 2.7 percent of teens, around four times more than the 0.7 percent figure which a UCLA study found last year.
And another survey in 2016 discovered that 40 percent of trans people have attempted suicide.
Last year saw a record number of trans people killed in the US.
The Ipsos study showed that across the world, Hungary, Poland and Japan were the least likely to say that their countries were becoming more accepting.
In Spain, Argentina and Britain, more than two-thirds of people agreed with the statement that trans people were “brave”.
On a hopeful note, the majority of American respondents – 57 percent – also said they thought being trans was brave.
People in Italy (11 percent), Spain (nine percent), Argentina (13 percent), and France (13 percent) were the least likely to believe that trans people have a form of mental illness.
Regarding the “tolerance” of transgender people, six in ten said they believed that their country was becoming more accepting.
This belief was highest in Argentina, where 78 percent of the population thought that they were becoming more tolerant of trans people.
Hungary, Poland and Japan were the least likely to say that their countries were becoming more accepting.
And other less encouraging results were presented by respondents in central and eastern Europe, with two-in-five people in Serbia, Hungary and Poland thinking that trans people have a mental illness.