Who Will You Support In the Primaries?
Presidential Candidates’ stance on GLBT issues is of obvious importance to those following both the election and this blog, especially because of the magnified importance of GLBT voting blocs during primaries. According to the Bay Area Reporter Online, which provides an excellent summary of different positions,
What’s problematic for the LGBT community at this juncture in the presidential contest is that the gay vote – which has provided favored candidates with a significant and reliable voting bloc in the past – is the danger of being marginalized by record turnouts.
The Las Vegas Sun reported this week that more than 10 times the number of Democrats turned out for that party’s caucuses Saturday than attended four years ago. As many as one-third of the crowd were newly registered Democrats. Records were broken similarly in Iowa and New Hampshire for the Democrats and are expected in South Carolina’s Democratic primary Saturday.
Exit polls in the 2000 and 2004 general elections found about 4 percent of voters willing to self-identify as gay nationwide, and what few surveys that have been conducted, indicate that the vast majority of gays are already registered.
But while the gay vote may seem diminished with a large turnout in the general election, it gets magnified in primaries, said political poll analyst Murray Edelman. That’s because most of that gay vote – 77 percent in the 2004 general election – goes Democratic.
The gay vote impact is also magnified in many of the upcoming primary states, like California, Massachusetts, and Illinois, because of the tendency for many gays to live in or near major metropolitan areas and in states and cities with laws that prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation. A pre-election survey in 1996, for instance, found that about 8 percent of “likely voters” in California were gay. Census data shows that the states with the highest concentrations of same-sex partner households and the highest percentage of unmarried men and unmarried women include many of the February 5 primary states, including Massachusetts, California, Illinois, and Georgia.
And while history indicates that most LGBT people in the “Super Duper Tuesday” states will be voting for a Democrat, there are some indicators suggesting their choice is still not an easy decision. For some, the differences among the top-polling candidates – in both parties – are subtle distinctions.
Traditionally, it has been easier to mobilize people for hate rather than to mobilize in favor of change, so the increased turnout makes me optimistic. But read here to determine the often subtle differences between Democratic candidates.
Link via Mombian.
GLBT, Election 2008, Primaries, GLBT Policies
GLBT, Election 2008, Primaries, GLBT Policies
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