New California Poll Reveals Dramatic Decrease for Support of “Gender Identity” Policies Since 2020
The tide is turning as a majority of California voters “strongly disagree” with allowing men to identify into women’s spaces like changing rooms and shelters, up nearly 20 points in the past three years.
A new poll sponsored by WoLF reveals a massive 20-point swing against gender identity policies since 2020, with a majority of California voters overwhelmingly opposing such policies.
The poll, conducted in November of 2023 by Spry Strategies with a random sample size of 1,000 likely 2024 general election voters, demonstrates a huge shift in public perception of gender issues and protecting single-sex spaces compared to a similar poll conducted in August of 2020 (n = 600). The poll also demonstrated a majority of voters support enacting a legal, biological definition of “woman,” such as that offered by the Women’s Bill of Rights.
Download the 2023 Poll Results | View All Past WoLF Poll Data
California Voters More Likely to Oppose Gender ID Policies Since 2020
Across similarly-worded questions, voters demonstrated a huge turn away from self-ID policies in prisons, changing rooms, and women’s shelters. Voters also increasingly expressed being “unsure” about self-ID policies, likely as a result of increased exposure to the consequences of these policies over the past three years.
Strong support for placing male offenders in women’s prisons was cut nearly in half in the past three years, with a 17% increase in strong disagreement with such policies. High-profile cases in California’s prison system, like Chandler v. CDCR, may have played a role in increasing awareness of the dangers incarcerated women face when forced to live with male offenders.
The largest swing in public opinion over the past three years was on the topic of homeless and domestic violence shelters, with 51.6% of California voters in strong support of keeping single-sex shelters, up from 32.8% in 2020. Strong support for letting men into women’s shelters had dropped drastically from 26.5% in 2020 to only 10.1% by 2023.
Strong support for allowing men into women’s changing rooms dropped by half over the past three years (down to 12% from 24.2% in 2020). An overwhelming majority of California voters oppose these policies and wish to uphold single-sex intimate spaces for women and girls.
Other Key Results
The survey posed multiple new questions gauging the California public’s opinion on multiple other issues related to gender identity. Overall the results follow a similar pattern: most California voters recognize the importance of biological sex and wish to protect women and children.
California Voters Support Biological Definitions of Sex
Over 70% of California voters state that they define a woman as someone “biologically born female,” while only 14% of voters agree that “anyone who feels or says they are” is a woman. A majority of voters (54%) support defining the word “woman” in law to protect women’s rights, with only 22.4% of voter opposing such laws.
California Voters Increasingly Support Parents’ Rights, While Opposing Child Transitioning
Nearly 70% of voters disagree that “children should be encouraged to explore their gender, decide their gender for themselves and identify their pronouns as early as kindergarten,” and 63.5% disagree with allowing children “to undergo surgeries to try to change them to the opposite sex or take off-label medications and hormones.”
Likewise, only 9.2% of voters believe that parents should lose custody “for refusing to allow children to undergo surgeries to try to become the opposite sex or take off-label medications and hormones.” Earlier this year, WoLF helped kill a bill in California (AB 957) that would have done just that.
Diverse Groups Support Women’s Rights To Safe Spaces More Than White Voters
Across the board, Native Americans displayed high support for single-sex spaces and recognition of biological sex of all ethnicities — countering the popular narrative that Native Americans would necessarily support gender identity because of the historic “two spirit” roles in some native cultures. In reality, 90% of Native American voters uphold a biological definition of womanhood (compared to 78% among Hispanics, 74% among African Americans, 68% among Asian voters, and 66% among white voters). White voters were consistently more likely than any other ethnicity to strongly support gender identity policies that allow males into women’s spaces including changing rooms, prisons, and shelters.
Exposure to The Consequences of Gender ID Turns Voters Off!
California has been a hotbed for gender policies and debate over the past three years. Overwhelmingly the results of this poll demonstrate what women across the world have already found to be true — that exposure to the consequences of self-ID wakes people up and shifts opinion in favor of supporting women’s rights. This is why trans activists censor and shut down any debate on the issue, and why we must keep fighting to raise awareness of how women and children are impacting by gender identity in every state.
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