Attitudes Towards Parents of Trans Children and Their Rights: An Australian Study

Abstract

Introduction: Trans children and their parents face challenges in both their private and public lives. In terms of the latter, public attitudes toward trans children and their parents can signifcantly impact experiences of inclusion or exclusion, including in terms of rights. Yet, to date, while a substantive body of research has focused on attitudes toward trans people in general, lacking is a focus on trans children and their parents. Methods: The study reported in this paper involved data collected in 2021 with a convenience sample of people living in Australia, who were asked to respond to a series of vignettes featuring accounts of parents of children of different gender modalities and genders, and participants were asked to rate the parents of the children in the vignettes. Participants also completed measures about traditional views of motherhood and fatherhood, a social dominance measure, a measure of values, and a measure of attitudes towards trans rights. Results: The findings suggest mothers were rated more negatively than fathers, those with more traditional views about mothers and fathers rated all vignettes more negatively, and those with more positive attitudes toward trans rights rated all vignettes more positively. There were no differences in ratings of parents based on the gender modality of the child; however, parents of non-binary children were rated most negatively. Conclusions: Together, the findings suggest broad support for trans children and their parents among the sample. Policy Implications The findings suggest that any restrictions to the rights or inclusion of trans children and their parents would likely not align with the views of people living in Australia.