LGBTQ issues have taken center stage at school board meetings around the state for the last year or so.

And while lines are often pretty clearly drawn in those meetings, a new Monmouth University poll just released today surveyed parents around the state to see how the majority of them feel on some of these hot button issues.

Things like should schools be required to tell parents if a child confides in them about their sexual preference or gender identity?

How do they feel about the state's curriculum?

Teaching students about gender issues?

What bathrooms and sports teams should transgender students be assigned to?

And do any of these sentiments shift based on political party affiliation?

Ted Goldberg dug into the data to better understand where New Jersey parents stand on these issues and to get reaction to the poll results from thought leaders on both sides.

Being gay or identifying as transgender is nothing new.

People have had these feelings and experiences, and I've been born this way for centuries, thousands of years.

It's just now we are talking about it with language that is readily available.

A controversial policy about gender identity playing out in a monmouth County Superior Court room last week is now the center of a new Monmouth University poll released today.

The poll asked 814 New Jersey adults about rules mandating that teachers tell parents if their children ask for a change in pronouns or other accommodations and asked their views about transgender bathrooms in schools and about playing for the sports team of a different gender.

The results might surprise you.

More than three in four New Jerseyans feel middle school and high school teachers should have to notify parents if their children want to identify as a different gender than what's on their school registration.

In sports, New Jerseyans think trans students should compete against people of the same biological sex, whether they're trans women or trans men.

Monmouth Polling Institute director Patrick Murray says there was one thing in common with the responses younger.

Adults versus older adults thinking that there be a huge difference.

There wasn't.

It was a very small difference between men and women, very small.

The only real difference that drove everyone of those groups to have some variation in what they viewed was what political party they identify with.

The polls showed most New Jersey adults don't believe someone can belong to a gender that they weren't born to.

And that affects how people feel about accommodations for transgender students.

A majority of Republicans and independents say someone can't identify as a man or woman if their birth sex is different.

While a large majority of Democrats say they can't.

Overall, majority of Democrats acknowledge that that exists, but a majority of independents say, no, they don't really think that that is something that can happen.

And nearly all Republicans.

Nobody's seemed surprised that a majority of New Jerseyans agree that parental notification should be required.

Even if Superior Court Judge David Bauman enjoined that rule for three districts in Monmouth County last week.

40% of the entire youth homeless population identifies as LGBTQ.

And that's because LGBTQ youth are growing up in homes that don't support them based on their sexual orientation or their gender identity.

And so this is a safety issue, but we completely understand that parents want to know this information, and we encourage parents to create an environment where children will share who they are to them.

Most New Jerseyans, they believe that if a child wants access to sports teams, the locker rooms or the bathrooms or the sex education classes of the opposite sex, their parent should be notified.

That's not surprising and that's common sense.

Despite those poll results.

It's been state policy for 14 years that students can compete against whichever gender a student identifies with.

And while schools can appeal if they think a student's eligibility would threaten safety or competition, it's not clear how many times it's happened.

Senator Michael Testa has introduced a bill that would require trained students to compete by their biological sex.

And in a statement, he said the results of this comprehensive Monmouth University poll could not be any clearer.

It's time for the government to stop, interfere, ring with the parent child relationship.

It's clearer now, more than ever.

Parents do not want to co-parent with the Murphy administration.

The state mandated policies over the past few years that would cause a major mistrust in New Jersey public schools.

It's caused a lot of conflict between parents and school boards that used to never exist before.

It's created a lot of tension at the local level, and we believe in I think what most people believe in is local control.

The poll also showed a range of opinions towards teaching gender identity with approval for high school students and more disapproval as students get younger.

When we are talking about teaching gender identity to younger grades, it's still age appropriate content is different conversation than what gender identity lessons would be for high school students.

And that's important for parents to understand if there.

Is a lack of awareness that it's vastly different in grades 1 to 5 versus high school level, then folks don't know about that.

And that might be something that's an issue that those who are advocates for transgender students need to talk about.

The poll results also showed a majority support for gender inclusive bathrooms as school districts and senators figure out school policy for trans students statewide.

For NJ Spotlight News, I'm Ted Goldberg.