Poll results
We designed and posted a survey form using Google forms on 01 April 2021 (Thursday). As of the writing of this article, two weeks have passed. Following are more details on the results;
Our form was a survey form composed of 16 questions and a total of 121 people filled it out. The first four questions aimed to collect some background information about the audience. The results for each question shall be discussed in detail and a summary at the end shall be provided.
- The majority of the respondents (66.9%) were female. The remaining were male (28.1%), non-binary (0.8%), and the rest (4.1%) preferred not to identify their gender.
- A vast populace of our respondents was of the ages 18–22 years old (67.8%). 23–25-year-olds formed the second largest group (12.4%) and the third-largest group were 13–17-year-olds (9.1%). The remainder were of the ages 26 to over 50.
- When asked which education level they were currently in, 75.2% responded that they were pursuing a Bachelor’s degree. 11.6% of the respondents were students in Intermediate/A-Levels and 9.9% were students pursuing a Master’s degree.
- 86% of our respondents hailed from urban areas whereas the remainder (14%) were from rural areas.
This data shows that a majority of our respondents were female 18–22-year-olds pursuing a Bachelor’s degree and living in urban areas.
In the next 3 questions, we asked our respondents how aware they were of various terms like “gender identity”, “sex”, “intersex”, and “transgender” and whether they were aware of the transgender community in Pakistan. All of these questions were scaled with 1 being least aware and 5 being most aware.
5. 41.3% respondents said that they were “most aware” of the transgender community in Pakistan whereas only 1 respondent (0.8%) said that they weren’t aware at all. If you take a look at the graph below, it’s clear that most of our respondents were aware of the transgender community existing in Pakistan.
6. When asked if they were aware of the terms “gender identity” and “sex” and the difference between them, a majority of the respondents (47.1%) said that they were most aware.
7. In the next question, we asked if our respondents were aware of the difference between the terms “transgender” and “intersex” and the following were the results:
This section shows that most of our respondents were aware of the transgender community in Pakistan and were also aware of the difference between “gender identity” and “sex” but a majority weren’t aware of the difference between “transgender” and “intersex” people.
In the next section, we attempted to see what our respondents thought of the transgender community.
8. 71.9% of respondents agreed that transgender people were not treated properly or given their due rights whereas 20.7% of respondents said that they were treated properly “to some extent” and only 7.4% of respondents said that they were treated properly and given their due rights.
9. When asked if they thought Pakistan had any laws regarding transgender/intersex people (it does), only a minority (22.3%) said that Pakistan had laws for them. A majority (41.3%) responded “maybe” and 36.4% of respondents said “No”.
10. When asked if intersex people should be grouped separately from transgender people and if they deserved separate laws, an overwhelming majority said: “yes” (66.1%).
11. In this question, we asked how our respondents would refer to a transgender person in their daily life and a majority of the responses were that they’d refer to them normally or ask the transgender person themselves how they’d like to be referred to.
12. When asked about their behaviour towards a transgender/intersex person if they ever encountered one in a public space, the following were the answers:
13. We then asked our respondents if they’d support medical procedures to make transgender/intersex people conform to societal gender norms. 34.7% (majority) of respondents said yes, 30.6% of the respondents said no, and the remainder said maybe or only if the transgender/intersex person themselves wanted to do it.
14. We also asked if they thought transgender people should hold reputable jobs like being a lawyer, police officer, doctor, engineer, etc. and an overwhelming majority (92.6%) said yes. Only 3 respondents (2.5%) said no.
15. A question about whether there should be support groups for transgender/intersex people was also included and once again an overwhelming majority (90.1%) said yes. However, 5% of the respondents said “no” and some added in that they should be treated normally.
16. However, when asked if they themselves would work at a pro-transgender support group/organization, only 53.7% said yes (Still the majority but fewer people than those who responded “yes” to the question above. 25.6% of the respondents responded “maybe” and 18.2% of respondents said that they wouldn’t volunteer at such organizations. One person added in that they wouldn’t volunteer because they feel that there are other, more pressing issues that need to be attended to however they do appreciate the ones working for such organizations.
Conclusion:
In conclusion, our poll results showed that while people were aware of the transgender community in Pakistan, they weren’t aware of the difference between the transgender and the intersex community. Additionally, while most respondents were respectful of the transgender/intersex community, there were some respondents who viewed this community negatively or had prejudices against transgender people since their condition is believed to be “psychological” and thus, in their eyes, easily avertable and ignored even though that’s clearly not the case.
Our campaign aims to spread more awareness regarding this cause so head on over to our social media pages to show support!
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