A Majority of Voters Oppose National “Don’t Say Gay or Trans” Bill Authored by Mike Johnson
By Rob Todaro
A year before becoming speaker of the House of Representatives, Mike Johnson introduced legislation, modeled after the controversial Florida law signed by Governor Ron DeSantis, that would essentially function as a national “Don’t Say Gay or Transgender” law.
The bill as written would “prohibit the use of Federal funds to develop, implement, facilitate, or fund any sexually-oriented program, event, or literature for children under the age of 10, and for other purposes." While the bill may seem reasonable in its focus on children under the age of 10, the bill, like the Florida law, is vaguely worded to intentionally have more sweeping impacts. The bill’s definition of “sexually-oriented material” includes “any topic involving gender identity, gender dysphoria, transgenderism, sexual orientation, or related subjects” — a definition broad enough to encompass any mention of LGBTQ+ identities. And the prohibition of this material would apply to government agencies and any entity that receives federal funding, including programs and events that take place in a federally owned facility or on federal property.
In practice, this legislation would ban federally funded community spaces, including public schools, libraries, hospitals, government office buildings, and military bases, from featuring any programs, events, or literature that merely mention gay or transgender people. New Data for Progress polling finds that a majority of voters oppose different policy implications of this legislation.
Previous polling from Data for Progress has found that Speaker Johnson’s stated positions on same-sex relationships are vastly out of step with the American electorate, and that personally knowing a transgender person correlates with increased sympathy for transgender people and support for LGBTQ+ issues. These new findings underscore that a majority of voters do not support Congress passing sweeping federal legislation to restrict programming and discussion that is inclusive of the LGBTQ+ community.
Rob Todaro (@robtodaro) is the Communications Director at Data for Progress.
Survey Methodology
From November 3 to 5, 2023, Data for Progress conducted a survey of 1,262 U.S. likely voters nationally using web panel respondents. The sample was weighted to be representative of likely voters by age, gender, education, race, geography, and voting history. The survey was conducted in English. The margin of error is ±3 percentage points.