Polling shows being supportive of transgender self-expression is not the same as supporting self-declaration for legal gender recognition
In September 2021 the Scottish Government set out a commitment to reform the Gender Recognition Act (GRA) to allow for a person to change their sex in law based on self-declaration, without medical gatekeeping, in its Programme for Government.
We were interested in how public opinion on GRA reform related to wider public attitudes towards transgender self-expression, and whether disagreement with a self-declaration model, such as that proposed by the Scottish Government, is indicative of ‘anti-trans’ attitudes, as some supporters of reform have claimed. To explore this, we commissioned Survation to undertake polling.
In a separate blog we set out a range of options for reform of the Gender Recognition Act that meet the high level aims of several political parties, that is, to simplify the process and reduce its intrusiveness, particularly in relation to the required medical evidence.
Note: the original Survation Excel data tables can be accessed here and the Survation summary charts here.