SANTA FE, NM – Today, Independent Women unveils poll results that highlight New Mexicans overwhelmingly support single-sex sports and spaces. The polling is a representative sample of New Mexican voters.
Seventy-four percent of New Mexicans disagreed with the statement, “Males who believe they are women should be allowed to compete in women’s high school, college, or professional sports,” while 84% of New Mexicans agreed with the statement, “When it comes to athletics, there are important reasons to separate the sexes.”
In addition to women’s sports, New Mexicans were also asked about prisons and males who self-identify as women entering female-only facilities. This became a central issue in the 2024 election cycle.
Eighty-two percent of New Mexicans disagreed with the statement, “Males who say they are women are currently being housed in women’s prisons and should be allowed to stay in women’s prisons, even if they are incarcerated for violence against women or rape,” and 88% of New Mexicans answered “yes” when asked, “Do you believe that single-sex spaces like women’s locker rooms, prisons, and rape crisis centers should be preserved to ensure safety or fairness?”
On January 9, Independent Women released an in-depth report, titled “Cruel and Unusual Punishment: Stopping the Dangerous Policies Putting Men in Women’s Prisons,” which showcases why women’s prisons should remain as female-only facilities and the threat radical gender ideology poses to female inmates.
“The New Mexico poll results drastically contrast existing law in New Mexico. It couldn’t be more clear that policies passed in Santa Fe do not represent New Mexican values. The results garnered in this recent polling even surpassed sentiments tested on the same questions in deeply red states,” said Jordanne Kemper, campaign and state affairs director for Independent Women. “Now, every legislator in New Mexico can confidently support revising New Mexico’s existing law that gender identity supersedes sex-based rights and pass legislation that defines sex and protects women’s sports and spaces. It’s time the Santa Fe bubble of insane pandering to radical extremism bursts.”
On the heels of standing behind President Donald Trump for the signing of his Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports Executive Order, Independent Women Ambassadors Payton McNabb and Kim Russell will testify before the New Mexico Legislature on Thursday, February 13, in support of the Protection of Women’s Sports Act. The bill, inspired by Independent Women’s Stand With Women legislation, takes the necessary step to codify President Trump’s executive order to keep men out of women’s sports and represents the voices of the overwhelming majority of New Mexicans.
The release of the New Mexico polling results also comes on the heels of President Trump’s day-one executive order that provides clarity to sex-based words like ‘woman,’ ‘man,’ ‘female,’ and ‘male,’ preserving the legal existence of women as distinct from men.
Independent Women is the architect of model legislation to define sex-based terms in law and code in order to stop bureaucrats and elitists on the federal and state levels from redefining language to fit a false narrative and erase women. Gender ideologues have sacrificed women’s rights to single-sex spaces, opportunities, and privacy on the altar of a radical view of “inclusion.”