Now this is interesting.

According to the Public Religion Research Institute, Americans’ attitudes to the alphabet ideology have been hardening, and the numbers don’t look so good if you are a proponent of the madness.

PRRI polled more than 5000 Americans–a huge sample for a poll, and one for which a ton of money had to be paid–and there has been a significant shift away from the basic tenets of the gender ideology that has been shoved down our throats by everybody in the Establishment over the past couple of years.

Political debates about gender identity have become heated in recent years, as some state legislatures have increasingly sought to restrict transgender rights. Battles over how — or even if — sexual orientation and gender identity should be discussed in public schools are also erupting at school boards nationally, amid larger frustrations with public education that have emerged in the wake of the pandemic and other social tumult.

This new study of more than 5,000 Americans takes a closer look at Americans’ views on gender identity and what is appropriate to teach in public schools with respect to sexual orientation and gender identity. We also gauge Americans’ comfort levels with the idea of a friend using gender-neutral pronouns or pronouns that may not match the respondent’s perception of their friend’s gender. We also ask Americans their thoughts about the age at which children should receive sex education in public schools and what content is appropriate.  We consider how partisanship, religion, media trust, parental status, and generation relate to people’s views on these matters. We also consider how knowing people who are LGBTQ influences such views.

It was less than 3 years ago that Joe Biden was elected to the White House, and while everybody knew that he was a longtime proponent of gay rights–he came out for gay marriage long before President Obama did, and actually annoyed Obama by taking a stand on the subject–I think it is fair to say that few Americans had any idea where Slow Joe’s Leftism would take him.

I suspect that if Joe had trotted out Admiral Levine or Assistant Secretary Luggage Thief as future appointments, that alone might have cost him the election. Almost nobody, I think it is fair to say, anticipated that the Administration would become an actual freak show. We expected more Pete Buttigiegs, not Sam Brintons.

It was Biden and the cultural Marxists who took an issue that was definitely on the back burner and made it into a cause célèbre. Biden spent an entire day at the White House spending time on alphabet issues, and even gave a very coveted one-on-one interview with transgender activist Dylan Mulvaney.

Given the latest polling numbers from PRRI, it seems like the effort is backfiring.

In the past several years, views have shifted on gender identities. In 2021, nearly six in ten Americans (59%) said there are only two gender identities, man and woman, and 40% of Americans believed there are many gender identities. The following year, in 2022, 62% of Americans believed that there are only two gender identities, and more than one-third (35%) said there are many gender identities. This divide slightly increased again in 2023, with 65% saying there are two gender identities and 34% saying there are many.

That is a pretty dramatic shift in opinion over a very short period of time. It’s even worse than President Biden’s poll numbers.

In recent years the Left has been claiming that transgender rights are “the civil rights issue of our time,” and while the claim itself strikes me as absurd, it has been very difficult to get an idea of how much traction in the general public that idea has gotten.

Well, now we have some pretty solid data. Almost every single group polled on this issue has moved rightward, including Democrats.

The discourse on the gender binary is highly polarized along partisan lines. Around nine in ten Republicans believe there are only two genders (87% in 2021, 90% in 2023). Democrats, by contrast, are less likely to believe that there are only two genders (38% in 2021, 44% in 2023). Independents have become more likely in the past few years to say that there are only two genders (60% in 2021, 66% in 2023).

Beliefs in a gender binary increased or remained steady from 2021 to 2023 among all religious groups. In 2021, 86% of white evangelical Protestants said there are only two genders, compared with 92% in 2023. In both years, around eight in ten Hispanic Protestants and Latter-day Saints said there are only two genders (79% and 81%, respectively, in 2021, and 82% and 81% in 2023). More than seven in ten Black Protestants (73% in 2021 and 71% in 2023) and around two-thirds of white mainline/non-evangelical Protestants (65% in 2021 and 67% in 2023) say there are only two genders. White Catholics have gone from more than six in ten in 2021 (62%) to nearly seven in ten in 2023 (69%) believing there are only two genders. Other Protestants of color and Hispanic Catholics have had the most drastic changes on this question among the religious groups. In 2021, 52% of other Protestants of color believed there are only two genders, compared with 73% in 2023. Hispanic Catholics went from 48% to 66%.

Like Hispanic Catholics, followers of other non-christian religions went from a minority saying there are only two genders in 2021 (42%) to the majority having that belief in 2023 (55%). Jewish Americans have remained consistent, at 44%, on this question. Religiously unaffiliated Americans who believe in only two genders have increased but remain in the minority, going from 38% in 2021 to 46% in 2023.[1]

Even Gen Z has moved significantly Right on the issue, which is a bit of a surprise. And, of course, younger folks who are still in school and being constantly indoctrinated in alphabet ideology are not represented in the poll.

While Gen Z still has the highest approval for the many genders ideology, even a majority of Gen Z members polled (57%) believe there are only two genders, and that opinion shifted 14 points RIGHTWARD over the past 3 years.

Only Jews didn’t change their mind, apparently. Go figure.

Protestants of Color had the largest shift, of more than 20 points, suggesting that this issue could bite into the Democrat coalition given its prominence in Democrat messaging.

As much as the Left likes to claim that this is an issue that has been stimulated by criticism from the Right, the truth is that conservatives are reacting to a massive shift in both messaging and policy driven by Democrats and those even further to the Left. Here in Minnesota, the Democrats broke out into wild applause on the floor of the House when a transgender bill passed, and the messaging on the issue was relentless.

Will Democrats pay a price for getting out front on this issue so heavily? It’s impossible to say.

What can be said is that opinions on issues rarely change this dramatically or quickly on their own, and the issue has real salience with people. That often translates into political outcomes.

Clearly, the conservatives are making progress when it comes to changing minds, although to be honest it may be just as true that Leftists are doing most of the heavy lifting by being, frankly, insane.