American Perspectives on the Legitimacy of Transgender Identities

Authors

Sethe Zachman, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow

First Advisor

Kelsy Burke

Second Advisor

Philip Schwadel

Third Advisor

Emily Kazyak

Date of this Version

Spring 5-1-2024

Citation

A thesis presented to the faculty of the Graduate College at the University of Nebraska in partial fulfillment of requirements for the degree of Master of Arts

Major: Sociology

Under the supervision of Professor Kelsy Burke

Lincoln, Nebraska, May 2024

Comments

Copyright 2024, Sethe R. Zachman. Used by permission

Abstract

This mixed-method project examines how Americans’ and Nebraskans’ perceptions of the validity of transgender identities varies by the demographic characteristics of respondents, and how these perceptions are justified. Two representative surveys are used to examine demographic associations with opinion on the cisgender and transgender binary: the 2023 American Values Atlas (AVA) from the Public Religion Research Institute (N=4,788) and the 2022 Nebraska Annual Social Indicators Survey (NASIS) (N=934) from the Bureau of Sociological Research. A measure from the AVA data examines the degree to which respondents believe there are only two genders versus a range of gender identities. The NASIS data provide a two-choice forced response item measuring whether Nebraskans believe binary categorization as a man or a woman is determined by sex assigned at birth, or not, followed by an open-ended question evaluating the respondent’s reasoning. Binary logistic regression results are complemented with a qualitative analysis of Nebraskans’ open-ended responses. Quantitative results indicate that proximity to and identification as a sexual minority, Democratic and liberal political identifications, being a female, having a bachelor’s degree or more, lower religious service attendance and lower religious saliency are associated with affirming transgender identities. Conversely, voting for Trump in the 2020 Presidential Election, Republican and conservative political identifications, religious service attendance, religious saliency and evangelical Protestantism are associated with expressing transprejudice via affirming the cisgender binary. Qualitative analysis shows that most anti-transgender respondents use narratives of biological essentialism and hegemonic Christianity to affirm their stance, which deepens our understandings of these associations. In contrast, pro-transgender respondents employ identity-based logic, and liberal ideals such as equality and non-judgmental autonomy to validate their perspectives. Results affirm previous findings that Americans identifying as conservative, Republican, and evangelical Protestant are more likely to express transprejudice. The prominent use of religion and biology to validate transprejudice implies the need for formulated educational initiatives directed at these demographics to decrease the political persecution of the transgender community.

Advisor: Kelsy Burke