Americans are evenly divided over laws that mandate which restroom facility transgender people should use, according to a new poll.
Nearly half of the respondents in a new CBS News/New York Times poll, 46 percent, said transgender people should be required to use the bathroom that corresponds with their birth gender. Another 41 percent said they should be able to use the bathroom that aligns with their gender identity.
The bathroom debate became a national issue after North Carolina passed a bill requiring bathroom use based on birth gender.
Despite the division, 57 percent of Americans are more inclined to say the decision over bathroom use for transgender people be left to state or local governments.
The results of the poll are partisan. While 65 percent of Republicans say transgender people should be required to use the bathroom that corresponds with their birth gender, 60 percent of Democrats said the opposite.
The Obama administration is currently in a lawsuit over North Carolina for its bathroom law, and issued a guidance over how schools should accommodate transgender students.
The telephone poll of 1,300 Americans was conducted May 13-17 with an overall margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points. Among those 1,300 surveyed, 378 identified as Republicans, 415 as Democrats and as 507 independents.
