Partisan Differences in Hiring and Social Discrimination against Nonbinary Americans

Abstract

Discrimination based on gender identity is unjust and wreaks havoc on individuals’ lives. Nonbinary Americans report experiencing extensive and daily experiences with discriminatory events. Yet experimental evidence on how employers and members of the public evaluate and react to individuals (e.g., job applicants, social acquaintances) with different gender identities remains limited and is mixed. Using experimental data from two conjoint analyses, which we conducted with two national samples—one of active hiring managers (Experiment 1: N = 12,934 applicant choices, N = 924 active hirers) and one of members of the public (Experiment 1: N = 32,908 neighbor choices, N = 2,057 respondents)—we document wide partisan differences in the proclivity to discriminate against people who are nonbinary. Republicans are over 10 percentage points more likely to hire a binary than a nonbinary applicant and are 16 to 20 points more likely to want someone as a neighbor if the person is binary compared to nonbinary.