Public Attitudes about Transgender Participation in Sports: The Roles of Gender, Gender Identity Conformity, and Sports Fandom

Flores, Andrew R.; Haider-Markel, Donald P.; Lewis, Daniel C.; Miller, Patrick R.; Tadlock, Barry L.; Taylor, Jami K.

doi:10.1007/s11199-019-01114-z

Original Article
Published: 06 January 2020

Public Attitudes about Transgender Participation in Sports: The Roles of Gender, Gender Identity Conformity, and Sports Fandom

Andrew R. Flores ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-3285-9488¹,
Donald P. Haider-Markel²,
Daniel C. Lewis³,
Patrick R. Miller²,
Barry L. Tadlock⁴ &
Jami K. Taylor⁵

Sex Roles volume 83, pages 382–398 (2020)Cite this article

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Abstract

We examine the roles of gender, gender attitudes, and interest in sports on public attitudes about transgender people’s participation in athletics. Using a representative survey of 1020 adults in the United States from 2015 and after controlling for a variety of demographic, political, and attitudinal factors, we find that women, consistent with their gender identity, are more supportive than men of transgender athletes participating in sports. In addition, we find that individuals who hold traditional gender role beliefs and those who have greater gender identity conformity with their gender are less likely to support transgender athletes’ participation. The effects of gender identity conformity and beliefs in traditional gender roles are also conditioned by respondents’ gender. Sports fans are more likely to oppose transgender athletes’ participation, and female sports fans have views that resemble those of male sports fans. Finally, respondents who have contact with transgender people and those with stronger egalitarian attitudes are more favorable toward transgender participation whereas those espousing high moral traditionalism are more opposed. Our findings highlight areas of support and resistance to transgender athletes, and our work might be helpful to policymakers, as well as advocates, who promote inclusion.

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Acknowledgements

The present research was jointly funded by the University of Toledo, University of Kansas, the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law, and Ohio University.

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Authors and Affiliations

Department of Government, American University and The Williams Institute, UCLA School of Law, 4400 Massachusetts Ave. NW, Washington, DC, 20016, USA
Andrew R. Flores
Department of Political Science, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, USA
Donald P. Haider-Markel & Patrick R. Miller
Department of Political Science and International Relations, Siena College, Loudonville, NY, USA
Daniel C. Lewis
Department of Political Science, Ohio University, Athens, OH, USA
Barry L. Tadlock
Department of Political Science and Public Administration, University of Toledo, Toledo, OH, USA
Jami K. Taylor

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Andrew R. Flores
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Donald P. Haider-Markel
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Daniel C. Lewis
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Patrick R. Miller
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Barry L. Tadlock
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Jami K. Taylor
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Andrew R. Flores.

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Disclosure of Potential Conflicts of Interests

The authors do not declare any real or perceived direct financial benefit from this research. As with publications of peer-reviewed work, a publication may be considered in collection with other publications for promotion and/or tenure at our respective institutions. Research grants from the University of Toledo, University of Kansas, the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law, and Ohio University supported the survey data collection, which is used in this study. The authors did not receive personal compensation from these grants to pursue this research.

Beyond that, the authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Research Involving Human Participants

The author’s home institutions independently approved this research as “Exempt” from human subjects review. Note that the corresponding author, who holds a dual affiliation, pursued this exemption status through the Human Subjects Review Board at the University of California at Los Angeles (where he was employed full time during the data collection).

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Human subjects were given informed consent when they were invited to participate in this study. If subjects did not consent to the study, then data were not collected from them.

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Flores, A.R., Haider-Markel, D.P., Lewis, D.C. et al. Public Attitudes about Transgender Participation in Sports: The Roles of Gender, Gender Identity Conformity, and Sports Fandom. Sex Roles 83, 382–398 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-019-01114-z

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Published: 06 January 2020
Issue Date: September 2020
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-019-01114-z

Keywords

LGBT
Transgender
Gender
Sport
Public opinion
Gender Dysphoria
Human sex differences
Adult attitudes