Two conservative states have the highest rates of “Am I trans?” » Research

Two conservative states have the highest current rates of “Am I trans?” Google is searching as the national conversation about transgender rights and gender dysphoria continues to heat up.

Transgender has impacted big business and state legislatures, where, according to the Trans Legislation Tracker, 549 anti-trans bills have been introduced in 49 states. Of these, 73 passed, 103 failed, and 373 remain active.

Businesses have become centers of ridicule by conservative segments of the population amid social media-focused boycotts, most recently Target for advertising, then pulling LGBTQ+ merchandise due to reported threats against staff members. Bud Light’s partnership with transgender activist Dylan Mulvaney caused a series of initial backlash that led to finger-pointing at other companies.

Yet according to the Cultural Currents Institute, which studies trends in public opinion, the highest online searches for individuals questioning their identity occur in the conservative states of Utah and Kentucky, based on data accumulated on May 22 and 23. They are followed by the liberal states of Colorado, Michigan and Washington.

Google Trends data was collected for all 50 US states and the District of Columbia from January 2004 through May of this year. It is based on a proprietary 100-point scoring system that represents the normalized volume of search terms proportional to all other searches in the region or time compared.

For the phrase “Am I trans?” Utah’s point system came in at 100, followed by Kentucky at 97. Colorado is at 71, Michigan at 70 and Washington State at 66.

Alithia Zamantakis, postdoctoral fellow at Northwestern University, said Newsweek that research shows that what might happen in conservative-led legislatures might be contrary to what individuals can experience in their own lives – and the more discussion there is around these issues, the more individuals want to discover their true identity.

“I think part of what we might see there is more things being discussed, it’s possible for kids to hear the words that represent who they are,” she said. “And so people might Google those words to figure out what they mean, ‘Am I this, am I not?’

“Because the reality is in most parts of the country, but even more so in hyper-conservative parts, people don’t really learn what it means to be gay or lesbian or trans. They have to learn from the media or the internet or more And so people are looking for answers.

The internet has long been a place where people across the LGBTQ spectrum can find a sense of community, she added.

The Utah Legislature has introduced 10 anti-trans bills since Jan. 1, in areas including education, health care and athletics. Four of the 10 bills have passed, including birth certificate changes, school gender identity policies, and provisions regarding transgender medical treatment and procedures.

Republican Utah Governor Spencer Cox has come under fire from organizations like the Human Rights Campaign for signing into law the transgender medical treatment bill. He was accused of “directly endangering the young LGBTQ+ people he previously claimed to want to protect”.

Newsweek contacted Cox’s office via email for comment.

Two of 13 anti-trans bills have passed in Kentucky, led by Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear. Legislation passed included one relating to education, such as requiring specific parental notifications from public schools and requiring school districts to adopt specific procedures related to parental rights; and the other was related to interscholastic athletics.

Beshear vetoed GOP legislation in March that would have regulated the lives of transgender youth, including banning access to gender-affirming health care, restricting the bathrooms they use, and a ban on conversations in schools about sexual orientation and gender identity, according to the Associated Press.

Newsweek contacted the Beshear office via email for comment.

“What these legislators are really writing is cracking down on LGBT people and also creating new divisions and really what they’re really doing is creating the basis for people to fight for LGBT people. people come together,” Zamantakis said.

“I think part of that, around the rise of these things being discussed in greater detail globally, is also that we have a very rigid understanding of what it means to be gay or lesbian or trans. And that’s is even truer in hyper-conservative states.”