Poll: Ohio voters divided on transgender bathroom issue, 48-43%

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Ohio voters say they oppose allowing transgender people to pick the bathroom consistent with their gender identity, according to a poll released by Quinnipiac University early Thursday.

While voters in Florida and Pennsylvania – the other two states polled in the Quinnipiac University Swing State Poll – say they believe that transgender people should have the right to use public bathrooms consistent with their gender identity, 48 percent of voters in Ohio say transgender people should not be able to choose which bathroom they use. Forty-three percent support that right.

Ohio women are split on the issue, with 47 percent in favor of allowing transgender people to pick the bathroom and 45 percent opposed.

Still, voters in all three states are opposed to the federal government ordering public schools to let transgender students use the bathroom of the gender with which they identify, said Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.

Forty nine percent of Ohio voters, meanwhile, say they are “very” or “somewhat” concerned that they or someone they know will contract the Zika virus. Voters in the state narrowly say that the government doing is enough to protect Americans from Zika – 42 to 38 percent.

And 51 percent of Ohio voters say the U.S. Olympic team should compete in the Olympics in Brazil this summer, while 30 percent say the athletes should be kept at home because of fears of the mosquito-borne virus.

“Men, white voters and those with college degrees are more likely among Ohioans to think the U.S. Olympic team should compete in Brazil despite the threat of the Zika virus,” Brown said.

The poll surveyed 971 Ohio voters between June 8 and 19. The margin of error is 3.1 percent. The Quinnipiac University Poll conducts public opinion surveys in Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Florida, Ohio, Virginia, Iowa, Colorado and the nation.