A recent Journal of Social and Personal Relationships study found that nearly 90 percent of survey respondents are not interested in dating transgender people. In a Psychology Today article on the study, coauthor Karen Blair implies these findings demonstrate significant discrimination—or at least an unwillingness to be inclusive—in dating.
However, instead of pointing out the obvious truth that biological cues are foundational for sexual and romantic attraction, the author goes to great lengths to convey sympathy for the exclusion of transgenders in the dating field as if it’s merely a social justice issue. This is yet another avenue progressives are using to encourage others to deny biological reality and normalize abnormal behaviors.
Blair explains that she and a colleague asked 1,000 survey participants, “Would you consider as a potential dating partner (check all that apply):
- a cisgender woman [someone who lives as her sex]
- a cisgender man [someone who lives as his sex]
- a transgender woman [a man who tries to look like a woman]
- a transgender man [a woman who tries to look like a man]
- a person with a non-binary gender identification” [someone who tries to look neither male nor female]
The results showed “87.5% of the participants who were asked this very question only checked off the cisgender options and excluded transgender and non-binary individuals from their hypothetical dating pool.”
Blair explains how important finding love is to happiness. Hardly anyone would disagree with her there. Then she goes on to say, “If very few people are willing to date trans people, what does this mean for their health and well-being? If trans and non-binary people lack access to one of the most stable sources of social support, this could explain some of the existing health disparities within trans communities.”
Instead of analyzing why this might be the case, or what it might say about the transgender movement, Blair immediately assumes trans people are being actively excluded, even discriminated against. Obviously, her logic goes, nearly 900 people are wrong.
Blair also found that “only a very small minority of cisgender, heterosexual individuals (3.1%) were willing to date a trans person, a much greater percentage of individuals who identified as bisexual or queer provided inclusive responses (55%).” However, Blair still seems puzzled at the responses that indicated “individuals were least likely to express an interest in dating trans women, even if their sexual identity would otherwise indicate an interest in women (i.e., straight men, lesbian women, or queer/bisexual individuals).”
Blair didn’t ask why respondents felt disinclined to date transgenders, Perhaps it was never her intention to extrapolate on the data, but I think it’s important to attempt to do so. This data on dating could hold many clues for why so many people struggle with defending the transgender movement.
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