SW News: A survey in the United States conducted recently has revealed that most people are opposed to schools conducting counseling sessions for students based on their gender identity without the permission of their parents. The poll was undertaken by Rasmussen Reports on May 24 and 25 involving 1,116 respondents.

The survey results were released on Thursday last week. As much as 60 percent of respondents do not want school officials to offer counseling to students on their sexual identity without parental consent. Only 26 percent held the opinion that schools need to have the ability to provide counseling to students without informing parents. Fourteen percent said that they did not have anything to say on the matter.

When it comes to political lines, 75 percent of Republican party supporters were opposed to schools deciding to counsel those students who felt gender dysphoria without their parents knowing. Sixty-four percent of people who did not have any political affiliation also supported this view.

Surprisingly, 44 percent of Democratic Party supporters also did not want schools to ignore parents while deciding to counsel students who are confused about their gender identity. In terms of the sexes, 65 percent of women hold the opinion that parents have to be in the loop if schools wish to offer counseling to children with gender dysphoria compared to 55 percent of men.

The Rasmussen survey comes in the wake of several school districts in the country facing legal challenges for referring to students by a chosen name or pronoun that does not correspond with their gender at birth. Florida and Iowa have already passed laws mandating schools to inform parents about any changes to a student’s name or pronoun.

The survey also showed that 62 percent of Americans are in support of state laws that prohibit surgeries that mutilate the body including mastectomy for girls and castration for boys.