Tadlock, Barry; Flores, Andrew; Haider-Markel, Donald; Miller, Patrick; Lewis, Daniel; Taylor, Jami K
description
Most of the public opinion research about sexual and gender minorities has focused on attitudes about lesbians and gay men, support for gay rights policies, and the factors that affect these attitudes. In particular, interpersonal contact with gay and lesbian individuals consistently is shown to positively affect attitudes toward these groups. Comparable studies about transgender people and transgender rights are few in number, and these studies find inconsistent effects of interpersonal contact on attitudes toward transgender people. Through use of two unique national surveys, we explore the influence of contact with transgender people on attitudes about transgender people and about transgender rights. We find that contact has a positive effect on attitudes, and that this effect is consistent across the two surveys and across different specifications of interpersonal contact. We discuss the implications for interpersonal contact with transgender people.
