Attitudes Towards State Policy Regulating Public Bathrooms

• In Event: What Determines Views on Contemporary Political Issues?

Abstract

A number of states and localities have recently considered new policies concerning public bathroom use. The central focus of most of these policies has been restrict the access of transgender people to public bathrooms based on their gender identity. These attempts to regulate the use of public space invoke a range of responses from the public. To better understand how the public views these regulatory efforts we analyze data from a unique nationally representative 2019 survey that included specific questions on state regulatory efforts and more general questions about public restrooms and transgender people. Based on studies of attitudes towards transgender people, we expect that political values, such as moral traditionalism, and psychological traits, such as disgust sensitively, will shape attitudes about regulating bathrooms to restrict the access of transgender people. Our results suggest the public is divided on bathroom regulation and political values as well as psychological traits influence which side of the divide individuals reside on. We discuss the implications for our findings for ongoing policy debates over bathroom regulation.

Authors

• Donald P. Haider-Markel, University of Kansas

• Andrew R. Flores, American University

• Daniel C. Lewis, Siena College

• Patrick R. Miller, University of Kansas

• Jami K. Taylor, University of Toledo