Metro Weekly

Report: One in three Americans believe being transgender is a sin

United States also most likely among 27 countries to believe that being transgender is a mental illness

Trans Pride Flag, Photo: Foreign and Commonwealth Office / Flickr

A new study has found that one in three Americans think that being transgender is a sin.

Carried out by Ipsos, the study attempted to determine global attitudes towards transgender people, and also found that one in three Americans believe that transgender people have a mental illness. No other country surveyed reported a higher percentage.

It was also found 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%.

Only a slim majority of respondents in the U.S. (51%) would like to see more done to protect transgender individuals.

Despite this, almost three quarters believe that the U.S. is “becoming more tolerant of transgender people” and 57% said that trans people were “brave.”

The Ipsos study found that of the 27 nations surveyed, Spain (9%), Italy (11%) and Argentina (11%) were least likely to believe transgender people have a mental illness. With the exception of America, Serbia, Hungary and Poland were most likely to think that transgender people have a mental illness.

In terms of acceptance, six out of ten people that participated in the study thought their country was more accepting of transgender. Argentina showed the highest percentage of people who believed their country was becoming more tolerant of trans people, at 78%.

A study last month reported 2017 was the most fatal year on record for LGBTQ people in the United States, and cited that transgender women of color have a “consistent and steadily rising number of reports of homicides.”

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