This story originally appeared on Them.
Political scientists decided to test the conservative claim that kicking transgender women out of women’s sports is primarily motivated by a desire to protect cisgender women. Their findings? Not quite true.
As the researchers wrote for The Conversation, “individuals with the most negative views of women and gender equality are the most likely to support these bans.”
The authors — two professors of political science and a doctoral candidate at the University of Massachusetts Amherst — surveyed 1,000 American adults about their feelings on the recent wave of restrictions surrounding trans athletes in sports.
As of this writing, per the Movement Advancement Project, a total of 29 states restrict trans participation in school sports, whether by law, regulation, or policy. At the federal level, President Donald Trump signed an executive order in February 2025 aimed at barring transgender women from women’s sports categories; subsequently, several athletic governing bodies, including the NCAA, have issued policy updates complying with the intent of the order.
While the UMass Amherst researchers found that about half of respondents would support a hypothetical “bill that prohibits transgender youth from joining school-sponsored sports teams that match their gender identity,” this support was not even. The respondents’ broader feelings about women were also gauged using a popular survey tool called a “feeling thermometer.” Support for trans sports bans, the authors found, increased alongside negative feelings toward women.
“Among respondents with the most positive views of women, 45% supported restricting transgender sports participation; among those with the most negative views of women, 58% supported restrictions,” they wrote.
But the most eye-opening results came after the researchers analyzed “hostile sexism” among the respondent pool, using a series of statements that scientists deploy to determine whether people endorse the belief that women are “incapable, manipulative, and controlling,” as the researchers summarize.
“Among the least sexist respondents, 28% supported banning transgender people from sports matching their gender identity; among the most sexist, 79% did,” they found — a near fifty-point gap.
The authors noted that sexism and negative views toward women don’t completely explain opposition to trans athletes in sports, but it does seem to throw a wrench in right-wing narratives. “That does not mean that everyone who supports a ban is motivated by hostility toward women,” the researchers concluded. “But the consistency of these findings makes it difficult to accept that protecting women is a primary reason why Americans support these restrictions.”
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