How does Secularization shape Tolerance towards Transgender People in Europe? A Cross-National Assessment

Over the past decade, research has focused on the individual-level determinants explaining tolerance towards transgenders, whilst country-level characteristics remain relatively unassessed. In my cross-national study in Europe, I argue that the literature can be enriched by including country-level secularization as a determinant for tolerance towards transgenders. Whilst taking a socialization-based approach, I claim that citizens in more secularized countries are more tolerant towards transgenders. Moreover, I argue that general between-country differences in tolerance towards transgenders, explained through secularization, may differ for social subgroups due to two societal divides: A religious divide, between religious and non-religious individuals, and an educational divide, between the less-educated and more-educated. Survey data of the Eurobarometer 91.4 (2019; 17,489 respondents in 24 European countries) are used in multi-level analyses to test my hypotheses. In line with the socialization-based approach I find that citizens in more secularized countries are indeed more tolerant towards transgenders. Furthermore, in accordance with the moral community hypothesis approach and contrary to the religious polarization approach, the social order approach, and the ceiling effect approach, only a religious divide is found wherein especially religious individuals are more tolerant towards transgenders in more secularized countries. When post-Communist countries are analyzed separately from countries without a Communist history in my explorative analyses, different patterns emerge that future research should aim to explain.