Support for gender diversity in Canada cooling, says StatsCan study
· Toronto Sun
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OTTAWA — Canadians are becoming less accepting of gender diversity, says new data released by Statistics Canada.
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The study Perceptions of gender-based violence and gender equality, identity and expression in Canada shows fewer Canadians in 2025 agreed with the statement that people “should be free to express their gender however they choose” than they did in 2018.
“Among women, the proportion who agreed decreased from 85% in 2018 to 77% in 2025,” read an excerpt from the study.
“Among men, the decrease was from 78% to 70%.”
This shift marks the largest drop in support across all measures that were tracked in the report, which also noted parallel drops in Canadians’ willingness to support family members who come out as transgender.
“As was the case in 2018, a considerably larger proportion of women than men held opinions supportive of transgender people and gender expression,” the study continued.
“Among both women and men, however, perceptions moved toward less acceptance between 2018 and 2025.”
Regionally, Saskatchewan recorded Canada’s lowest acceptance rates — where support of gender diversity among women fell 14 percentage points from 83% in 2018 to 69% in 2025.
Support among the province’s men sat at 60%.
Gender identity polarizing topic
Always a contentious issue, gender diversity has become particularly volatile over the past few years.
A number of provinces have pushed policies or enacted laws meant to set limits, including Alberta’s Fairness and Safety in Sport Act , which was passed into law last September.
That law bans biological male athletes, regardless of their gender identity, from competing in categories and divisions reserved for women.
The law requires athletes competing in female-only divisions to verify their biological birth sex, as well as restricting cross-sex use of single-sex change rooms.
As well, both Saskatchewan and New Brunswick in 2023 enacted policies that require parents to be notified if their children request name or pronoun changes in school.
As the debate over gender diversity rages, Canadians’ opinions over same-sex couple adopting children remain statistically unchanged, with 80% of women and 71% of men “agreeing same-sex couples should have equal adoption rights to straight couples.
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