Protect the women!” Trans‐exclusionary feminist issue framing and support for transgender rights

Bibliographic Data

ID6330381
AuthorsStuart J Turnbull-Dugarte (0000-0002-9330-3945, Department of Politics and International Relations University of Southampton Southampton Hampshire UK, corresponding author), Fraser Mcmillan (0000-0002-4843-2449, School of Social and Political Sciences University of Glasgow Glasgow UK)
Year2023
Volume51
Issue3
Pages629-666
Publication date2023-08-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenuePolicy Studies Journal (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0190-292X • E-ISSN: 1541-0072
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/psj.12484
OpenAlexW4308448390
LanguageEN
Citations received30
References cited86

An increasingly salient policy innovation pursued by LGBT+ rights groups and socially liberal policy entrepreneurs is the right of trans people to bring their legally recorded sex in line with their lived gender by way of self‐identification. In response to these moves toward trans inclusion, a unique coalition of trans‐exclusionary (gender critical) feminists and traditionalist conservatives has emerged to challenge these reforms. This coalition of policy opponents, mirroring historical issue frames that present homosexuals as predatory sexual deviants, campaign on a salient issue frame that presents transgender individuals and the expansion of trans rights as an inimical threat to the security, safety, and welfare of (cisgender) women, particularly in single‐sex spaces. In this paper, we address two questions. First, we ask: do trans‐exclusionary “protect women” issue frames over the alleged threat of trans persons to (cis) women shape mass public opinion? Second, we ask: in a relatively LGBT+ friendly policy environment, who supports the right to self‐identification for trans individuals? We answer these questions via an original pre‐registered survey experiment embedded within the 2021 Scottish Election Study. We find that trans‐exclusionary issue frames appealing to (cis) women's safety significantly depress support for trans rights, particularly among women respondents. Highlighting these concerns is an effective means of increasing already robust opposition to reforms designed to improve the welfare of transgender individuals, which should be of concern for proponents of self‐identification policies

Criminology · Framing (construction · Political science · Salient · Sociology · Transgender · Welfare · Electoral Systems and Political Participation · Gender Politics and Representation · Gender Studies · Law · LGBTQ Health, Identity, and Policy

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