Abstract
In the UK one can barely turn the page of a newspaper without coming across some article written about transgender people. Such articles rarely tend to be trans-supportive. Sensational stories about trans women invading women’s spaces, appropriating female ‘sex-based rights’, and trans women dominating women’s sports can be found in print, online, and on television. What is happening in the UK is somewhat paradoxical. On the one hand, the country has strong protections for trans people, but, on the other, hostility towards trans people is becoming more common. We seek to find out why. By using an online survey of UK residents, we found that anti-transgender views tended to be held most strongly by those people who scored highly on a scale of authoritarianism. What these results mean in a country currently in the grip of an anti-trans moral panic has yet to be fully determined.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | e70088 |
| Number of pages | 12 |
| Journal | Sociology Compass |
| Volume | 19 |
| Issue number | 7 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 16 Jul 2025 |
Keywords
- United Kingdom politics
- authoritarianism
- gender recognition act
- transgender
- transphobia