A majority of Americans don’t approve of a State Department policy that lets people change the gender identity on their passport without documentation, a new Rasmussen Reports survey showed.
In the telephone and online survey released Tuesday, 54% of respondents said they disapproved, including 39% who strongly disapprove, compared with 35% who approve, including 18% who strongly approve.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced the new passport rules on June 30, stating, "most immediately, we will be updating our procedures to allow applicants to self-select their gender as ‘M’ or ‘F’ and will no longer require medical certification if an applicant’s self-selected gender does not match the gender on their other citizenship or identity documents."
The Rasmussen Reports survey also found 60% of Americans now oppose allowing transgender people to use the bathrooms and locker rooms of the gender they identify with, up from 49% in 2017. The survey showed 25% now support allowing biological males who identify as female to use women’s facilities, down from 38% in 2017.
In other findings, the survey showed:
- 56% of Democrats approve of the new passport gender rules, while 22% of Republicans and 26% of independent voters approve of allowing Americans to select the gender they would like printed on their U.S. passport, even if it does not match the gender on supporting documentation.
- 73% of Republicans and 60% of independents disapprove of the State Department’s new passport gender policy, as do 35% of Democrats.
- 56% of whites, 53% of Blacks and 52% of other minorities disapprove of the new State Department passport policy.
The survey’s margin of error is plus or minus 3 percentage points.