More Americans are moving right on LGBT issues, new poll finds

Mitchell Willetts, Miami Herald on Nov 4, 2025

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A growing number of Americans are shifting to the right when it comes to policy on LGBT issues, closing the distance significantly with the Democratic Party, according to a new Pew Research poll.

While Democrats generally enjoy a comfortable lead over Republicans in polling on matters of LBGT policy, the GOP has made substantial gains in a period of just two years, the Oct. 30 poll found.

Support for the Republican Party on “policies related to people who are gay, lesbian or transgender” increased from 29% in 2023 to 35% in 2025, a six-point bump. Support for Democrats, while still ahead of Republicans, stayed put at 37% in both polls, bringing 2023’s eight-point lead down to a difference of only two points in 2025.

The poll is based on responses from 3,445 randomly selected U.S. adults and has a margin of error of 1.9%, researchers said.

Researchers didn’t specify what’s behind the rise in support for the right’s LGBT policies. However, polling also found that, within two years, the number of people saying they disagreed with both parties’ policies dropped seven points, from 33% to 26% in 2025.

President Donald Trump — and many in the Republican Party — has been outspoken about the LGBT community in recent years, with a focus on transgender people in particular, telling a New York City crowd in 2024 that he would get “transgender insanity the hell out of our schools.”

During his presidential bid, the Trump campaign spent millions of dollars on advertisements focusing on concerns over transgender women in sports, with one ad concluding with the tagline, “Kamala is for they/them. President Trump is for you,” McClatchy News previously reported.

The administration has followed through on many of its campaign trail promises. In February, Trump signed an executive order banning trans girls and women from taking part in women’s sports.

And more recently, the Department of Health and Human Services put forward a proposed rule that would cut off Medicaid reimbursement for transgender people under 18 years of age, NPR reported. Another proposal would cut Medicare and Medicaid hospital funding for services that provide gender-affirming care to transgender youth.

On economic policy, the GOP lost ground among voters, with approval dropping to 38% from 42% two years prior. At the same time, Democrats climbed to 35% approval in polling, a five-point increase that brings the parties within three points of each other. The GOP had a 12-point lead in the 2023 poll.

Republicans remain strong on crime in the eyes of voters, with 45% of those polled saying they approve of the party’s stance on law and order. For Democrats, 28% of respondents expressed their approval, and 26% said they feel neither party has a proper approach to crime.

One of the best issues for the left is health care policy, for which Democrats have 42% approval, the poll found. Both parties saw a measurable bump in support on the issue, but Republicans polled 13 points behind, receiving 29% approval.

Republicans have 44% approval on the party’s handling of immigration, compared to 35% for Democrats, and 20% who were dissatisfied with both.