Did a national poll find that 70% of adults favor laws requiring transgender athletes to compete on teams matching their biological sex as assigned at birth?

A Marquette Law School Poll found that 71% of U.S. adults favor requiring that transgender athletes compete on teams that match the sex they were assigned at birth, not the gender with which they identify, and 28% were opposed.

The online poll of 1,010 adults was conducted May 8-18, 2023.

On July 12, 2023, Republican state Rep. Barbara Dittrich, who represents part of suburban Milwaukee, cited the March 2023 version of the Marquette poll in announcing she would introduce the Save Women in Sports Act.

That poll found a 70-30 split in support versus opposition on the same question.Dittrich said her Assembly bill and a companion Senate bill from another suburban Milwaukee Republican, Sen. Dan Knodl, would offer three categories of sports competition based on a person’s “biological sex” with an additional co-ed category.

Knodl said the legislation would apply to K-12 and collegiate sports.

This fact brief, originally published by Wisconsin Watch, is responsive to conversations such as this one. See a full discussion of this at Wisconsin Watch