MSU Researchers Awarded Grant to Study Michigan Voters’ Views on Gender-Affirming Care for Transgender Youth

October 6, 2025 - Brandon Drain

Michigan State University School of Social Work faculty Drs. Sacha Klein and Deirdre Shires have been awarded a $21,890 Michigan Applied Public Policy Research (MAPPR) grant from the Institute for Public Policy and Social Research.

The research team plans to examine attitudes toward gender-affirming care for transgender youth by surveying Michigan voters to gauge their opinions and inform policymakers.

This study comes at a time where, “access to gender-affirming care for youth is very much under attack,” said Shires, “despite being endorsed as best practice care by professional organizations such as the American Academy of Pediatrics.”

The U.S. public has become less supportive of protections for transgender individuals over the past several years—and more divided across party lines as gender identity issues are increasingly politicized, the team noted.

Recent national polling suggests that while most Americans (64%) do favor or strongly favor laws that protect transgender individuals from job or housing discrimination, nearly half (46%) favor making it illegal for health care professionals to provide gender-affirming medical care to minors.

Researchers note several factors that may influence attitudes toward transgender people, including knowing someone who is transgender, awareness of the issue, religious beliefs, partisanship, authoritarian beliefs, and whether they believe that gender is defined by sex assigned at birth.

“There is a clear need for both legislators and advocates to not only understand MI voters’ views on gender-affirming care for youth, but also to understand what factors influence their perspectives and how these opinions vary by demographic groups,” they said.

The team also noted that it is unclear the extent to which voters have access to scientifically accurate information about gender identity and gender-affirming health care for minors and how misinformation might be affecting their views.

Currently, there is no law in Michigan (MI) banning or limiting gender-affirming care access for youth, the team noted. However, five bills have already been introduced in the 2025-2026 legislative session that could potentially prohibit healthcare providers from delivering best practice gender-affirming health care to minors in MI (HB 4190, HB 4466, HB 4467, SB 289, and SB 290), they continued.

The extent to which MI voters support gender-affirming care for youth is still largely unknown, however, and, “Part of what we're trying to assess are the attitudes amongst Michigan voters around current bills that have been proposed,” said Klein. “Policymakers deserve to have information about what their constituents want, and not just the most vocal members of their constituency.”

Preliminary results are expected by May 2026, with the goal of informing state budget decisions and advocating for equitable policies.

“As social workers, we should not be shying away from controversial topics, particularly when we know the human rights of vulnerable populations are at stake,” said Klein.

The Institute for Public Policy and Social Research applies research to pressing public policy issues and builds problem-solving relationships between the academic and policymaker communities. The Institute:

• promotes and conducts research on issues of public policy.
• provides survey research services.
• produces public policy education and training programs.
• initiates discussion of society's most pressing needs among diverse audiences.