EXCLUSIVE: Majority Of American Parents Oppose Teaching Kids Transgender Ideology

The vast majority of parents oppose schools teaching their children transgender ideology, polling conducted last month by Parents Defending Education shows. 

The polling, first shared with The Daily Wire, shows that 75% of parents do not support teachers providing instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity to elementary school students. Additionally, a large majority of parents indicated they opposed teachers pushing transgender identity on kids behind their parents’ backs, as has happened across the country. 

“This poll shows overwhelming opposition to school personnel withholding information from parents about their child’s gender identity at school,” Parents Defending Education Director of Outreach Erika Sanzi told The Daily Wire. “It’s refreshing to see even more confirmation that people think this ubiquitous trend of facilitating gender transitions behind the backs of parents is complete madness and needs to stop.”

Covering a wide range of topics from DEI to transgender policies, the polling from Parents Defending Education shows that parents want more oversight of what is happening in their children’s classrooms. 

The poll surveyed 1,000 parents across the country who have children under the age of 18. The results come as parents have become increasingly vocal about the need for schools to focus on academics and not ideology. A third of those surveyed said they leaned Republican. Thirty-eight percent said they were independent, and 24% said they leaned Democrat. 

The survey found that 80% of parents believed that schools should not “help a child change their gender identity” without parental notification while 19% said they would be fine with teachers changing a student’s pronouns or providing things like chest binders to girls without parental consent.  

Three-quarters of those surveyed said they supported legislation that would require school officials to inform parents if their child wanted to identify as a different gender at school. Just over 60% of parents said they disagreed with a Wisconsin school district policy that said parents do not have a right to know about their child’s identity.

“This matters because the policies propagated by activist groups, the National School Boards Association, and teachers’ unions all allow for  — and often require — the deliberate deception of parents by school staff if that is what the minor child wants,” Sanzi said of the polling. 

When asked whether they supported teachers instructing elementary school students on topics related to sexual orientation and gender ideology, 74% said they were opposed.

Nearly 80% of parents indicated they did not believe that males who identify as females should be allowed to compete on women’s sports teams. Republican-led states across the country have passed laws in recent years requiring students to participate on the sports team aligning with their biology. 

While 21% of those surveyed said that they would be fine with allowing a male to use female bathrooms and locker rooms, 77% said they would oppose any policy that allowed that. Similarly, the poll found that 72% of parents believed that students should be housed based on biological sex during field trips.

The poll also showed that 72% of parents opposed schools implementing “grading for equity” policies, including things like eliminating the ability for a student to get a zero on an assignment that was not turned in. Over half of the parents (56%) also opposed schools sponsoring race-based clubs. 

“These results highlight that parents are dissatisfied with a number of elements of the modern American education system – and that there is broad-based consensus that it’s time for schools to get back to basics,” Parents Defending Education President Nicole Neily told The Daily Wire. 

Neily added that she was optimistic about the incoming Trump administration, which has suggested it would make major reforms at the Department of Education. 

“For far too long, federal bureaucrats have sacrificed the needs of students and families in order to appease unions’ and activists’ insatiable demands for money and power,” she said. “January 20th can’t come soon enough.”