Three in five people intentionally misgender trans people: report

A new international report shows most people would still misgender and use the wrong pronouns for trans people, with non-binary people faring the worst.

The study by market research group Ipsos surveyed people in 27 countries, including Australia, on their attitudes about trans people, The Financial has reported.

Only two in five people in majority English-speaking countries said they would refer to a trans man or woman by their correct gender pronouns, rather than as the sex they were assigned at birth.

Australia performed relatively well, with just 13 per cent of respondents saying they would call a trans woman ‘he’, and 14 per cent saying they would call a trans man ‘she’.

Americans did the worst, with 22 per cent saying they would intentionally misgender a trans woman and 21 per cent saying they would misgender a trans man.

Among the respondents from English-speaking countries, only one in five said they would use the gender-neutral pronoun ‘they’.

Good news from the report is that most people—60 per cent—would like to see their country do more to support trans people.

People in Spain were most likely to think that trans people should be better protected and supported, with 70 per cent agreeing.

Internationally, 70 per cent of respondents said their governments need to protect trans people from discrimination.

Most people, including 71 per cent of Australians surveyed, believe their country is becoming more tolerant of trans people.

60 per cent of people in the study said they believe trans people are brave.

A slim majority of people worldwide, 52 per cent, said they think trans people are a “natural” occurrence.

America fared poorly in its attitudes about trans people, being the most likely to consider being trans a mental illness (32 per cent) or a sin (32 per cent), and the most likely to think that society has “gone too far” in allowing trans people to live as their true gender (36 per cent).

Survey respondents in Japan were least likely to think society had gone too far with trans people, with just 9 per cent agreeing with the statement.