Tadlock, Barry; Flores, Andrew; Haider-Markel, Don; Lewis, Dan; Miller, Patrick; 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. Among the factors that commonly affect attitudes is interpersonal contact with gay and lesbian individuals. Comparable studies about transgender people and transgender rights are few in number. Through use of two new national surveys, we explore the influence of contact with transgender people on attitudes about transgender people and transgender rights policies. We find that contact has a positive impact on attitudes, and that this impact is consistent across the two surveys and across different specifications of contact. We compare findings with those that pertain to the lesbian and gay communities, and discuss the implications for interpersonal contact with transgender people.
