Major new survey of 21,119 people in Britain about whether "it is acceptable for adolescent children to make their own decisions about their gender identity"

[Sunkisses]

Shows Britain is massively divided, with a large number of people undecided.

Great article by James Kirkup analysing the results here: unherd.com/2019/11/no-wonder-the-politicians-dont-want-to-talk-about-gender/

Results, including detailed map showing each constituency here: election.unherd.com

How well did the respondents understand the question? Did they realise that changing gender often means being set off in a one way direction for a life of medicialisation and body transformations?

@Thingybob I suspect that is the reason why there was such a large number of undecideds.

Interesting - the question is incredibly ambiguous - I absolutely agree that any of my children should be able decide to be gender non conforming - by what they do - how they live and who they ultimately love - What I don’t believe is they can change their sex. A much more effective question would be - Do you believe a child can change their biological sex through - drugs - surgery or the power of thought or more bluntly - Do some women have penises

100% agree with Thingybob and lucasthecat. I would answer this question in two diametrically opposite ways depending on whether I thought it meant children should be free to non-conform to gender stereotypes, or free to elect radical life altering clinical treatment and surgeries. Therefore this survey tells me nothing. What a wasted effort.

Scotland is mostly against or undecided, with very little strong support, so what do the SNP think they're doing?

What a terrible question and waste of time and resources, not sure how it can tell us very much really when we can't be sure what it means.

Asking people to agree with a statement is a biased question - people always prefer to agree. To avoid bias, and to make the question less ambigious it is helpful to include both states in the question, in other words:

Should adolescent children make their own decisions about their gender identity, or should they be forced to comply with a set of culturally imposed sex stereotypes?

If that was what they meant, or:

Should adolescent children who do not wish to conform to culturally imposed stereotypes associated with their sex be encouraged to make decisions to undergo harmful experimental medical treatment to try and hide their sex and then be treated as if their sex is irrelevant?

I thought exactly the same as lucasthecat. Yes, of course children should be able to choose their 'gender'. It's a meaningless term much like personality. No, of course they should not be taught that sex is not real, or that it can be changed. They should not be allowed to take hormones or make permanent changes to their developing bodies.

Yes, rubbish question.

We need to know what kind of decisions they are talking about; growing/cutting hair, clothing, make up, change of name, sure crack on with those decisions.

Irreversible changes to body or fertility - not so much.