Although more than half of Americans back transgender individuals serving openly in the military, support has continued to slip in the past six years, according to a Gallup Poll released Monday.
The national telephone survey of 1,001 adults ages 18 and older was taken from Jan. 21-27 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.
It showed that 58% approved of transgender service members, but that dropped sharply from 71% in 2019 and 66% in 2021. On Inauguration Day, Trump signed an executive order rescinding the Biden administration's 2021 move to allow individuals identifying as transgender to openly serve.
On Jan. 26, he signed another that went further, outlining new military standards regarding gender pronouns and stating that mental and physical readiness requires transgender individuals to be banned from the military.
"The overall drop in support for transgender military service is driven by Republicans and, to a lesser degree, independents," wrote Megan Brenan, a senior editor at Gallup, in a news release. "The current 23% of Republicans who back openly transgender men and women serving in the military is down from twin 43% readings in 2019 and 2021."
"Meanwhile, independents' 62% support is significantly below the 78% reading in 2019 but similar to the 66% from 2021. Democrats' backing for transgender military service currently stands at 84% and has been generally steady since 2019."
Transgender individuals were first allowed to serve openly in the U.S. military when a ban was lifted in mid-2016, during the last year of former President Barack Obama's second term. A year later, in his first term, Trump tried to ban transgender individuals from serving in any capacity in the U.S. military.
After legal challenges, transgender military personnel were allowed to continue to serve, but new transgender recruits were allowed to serve only in their biological gender. Gallup said its 2019 finding of 71% showed support following that decision.