Exit polls shows 1-in-3 voters who self-identified as gay voted Republican. Do we no longer see GOP as automatically anti-gay?
Matthew Tsien | Special Contributor
We learned a lot about gay voters in this last election — at least, you did if you have an open mind and a discerning intellect.
According to Fox News, which some gays do watch, 31 percent or more of self-identified gay voters in exit polls said they voted for the Republican Party. That is one in three gay voters, and more than the normal GOP base in the gay community of one in four.
That means a considerable number of gay Democrats and independents defected to the party opposing Obama/Pelosi.
Most gays will be shocked that gay people voted for what is supposed to be a party of rampant, uncontrollable, domineering, hyper-extreme homophobia. Well, at least that’s what most gays who live in a gay bubble all their intellectual and social lives would think.
Actually the number of gay people who voted for the GOP might even be 5-to-10 percent higher, since not every gay is inclined to self-identify as gay in an exit poll.
These numbers do tell us something very profound and unshakable about the gay political psyche, and it is not about self-loathing and being in the closet.
Instead, gay voters going to the GOP is strong indication that many gays no longer believe that the world — or even the GOP — is nearly as homophobic as the gay press and political class make it out to be.
Simply put, many gays have walked away from the once-popular notion of homophobia dominating the world according to the gay journalism universe. And they’re tired of being called “nut jobs” and in need of psychiatric help if they don’t vote Democratic or for more government.
Furthermore, many — approximately 30-to-40 percent embrace the Republican position of less taxes, less government, less bailouts, less deficits, less massive foreign borrowing, less Obamamania — and more freedom to run your own life, even the freedom to fail.
Gays know that HIV funding does not disappear with a GOP Congress. They also know that job protection does not evaporate if Republicans take over the government. And many gays just are not interested in marriage since it is set up for heterosexuals with all the potential traumatic divorce laws and financial devastation that accompanies traditional marriage. The trap of marriage equality is simply not a first and foremost concern to many thoughtful gay people.
Gay people were very involved with the Tea Party, phone bank operations and a multitude of effective get-out-the-vote efforts to help the Republicans win a historical election and deliver a massive repudiation of the extreme elements that have defined the first two years of Obama.
And that’s a fact worth noting.
Matthew Tsien is the former public affairs director for the Washington, D.C. chapter of Log Cabin Republicans and a graduate of the National Journalism Center.
This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition November 12, 2010.
Excuse me? The “trap of marriage equality” isn’t a concern to gay people? I have yet to meet even one gay person who does not want to be treated equally under the law. All the gay people I know want equal rights in ALL aspects of civil law. You should try coming out of that 19th century log cabin you’re living in.
Want less taxes? Obama signed into law the LARGEST middle class tax break in U.S. history.
Want less deficits? Obama is responsible for ending the fiscal year with LESS of a deficit than the last fiscal year under George W. Bush!
I could go on and on and on and on with fact after fact after fact to show how your vision of democrats as freedom-hating government bloating “socialist” is just a delusional mythology propped up nightly by Fux News.
My open mind and a discerning intellect concludes only one thing about the poll you cite: in 2012 that increased percentage of gay people who voted republican will suffer the same degree of buyer’s remorse as the rest of the nation.
Mr.
Get the GOP into power and THIS is what they do: “North Carolina’s social conservatives believe the Republican sweep at the legislature should finally permit a vote on a state constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage.”
See: https://www.news-record.com/content/2010/11/11/article/conservatives_hope_for_gay_marriage_ban_in_nc
Still believe those “fiscal conservatives” won’t scramble to keep gays in their place as soon as they seize power?
And one more point Mr. Tsien:
You argue that “many gays just are not interested in marriage.”
Since when is degree of popular interest in exercise of a particular civil right germane to the equal application of the law?
Take, for example, the Log Cabin Republican’s laudable fight to end DADT. Will you now argue against repeal of DADT? After all, “many gays just are not interested in military service.”
And you think YOU are the one with the “discerning intellect?” How about a little intellectual consistency.
You’re taking this the WRONG way. A lot of gays voted Republican to punish Obama for not supporting gays on DADT, gay marriage, ENDA, etc. At least with the Repukes we get the truth (they don’t like us, but they’ll lower our taxes).
Excellent article and summary of what happened this election. Though, many of those who voted for the GOP (Toomey and Corbett, here, wootwoot!) never voted for Obama.
As for ‘marriage equality’, you have it. You can marry any unmarried woman of age who is not related to you. What you don’t have, is the right to force a change in the definition of marriage.
As long as one party believes they can take our vote for granted, they won’t feel any pressure to take our issues seriously. Just look at Obama’s foot dragging on marriage equality and military service. Once they get our vote, the “fierce” part comes out of the “fierce advocate”.
I say we support whoever is supporting us, be they Democrat, Republican, Libertarian, or Independent. Our votes should go to those who value us most.
@Brendan Kissam: Who defined marriage in the first place? Is marriage religious or secular? If it’s a religious institution, then YOU have no right to tell MY religion that they can’t marry my partner and me. If it’s secular, then YOU have no right to tell me that I can’t petition for the law to be changed to be more inclusive. Marriage is a legal contract between two adults, and you have NO legal or “moral” authority to tell me who I may and may not enter into a binding contract with.
I just threw up in my mouth.
Man… talk about self hate and loathing… You might as well go tea baggin’ with Sarah Palin and her trampy daughter.
In 2010, there were 195 GOP House members. 190 of them voted to keep DADT.
This shows that 97.5% of elected republican officials….believe that you and your crew of GOProud and Log Cabin members are a bunch of perverts…so much so that a special law needs to be created to keep you and “your kind” away from our military service members.
Matthew Tsien, you are delusional and pompous. However, 97.5% of republicans are also delusional and pompous…so I’d say you’re right at home.
Well, I’m gay, I’m a libertarian, and I vote Republican. Why? Because I don’t buy into Obama’s big government agenda, his hope and change bullshit, his class warfare, his “Dreams from my father,” his Harvard education, his health care policies, his massive spending, and anything his ever done. I want my president to be proud of America, not to apologize for her mistakes, I want someone that doesn’t call himself a global citizen like Obama did, and lastly, I don’t that blames the electorate for not understanding his ideas. Guess what, Obama, we understand your ideas, and we don’t like them.
https://politicallyincorrectlibertarian.wordpress.com/
re: many gays just are not interested in marriage since it is set up for heterosexuals
In a truly free society marriage would not be “set up for heterosexuals”. This contract would be between the parties and their chosen deity. Stop fighting to conform, remove government from the equation, and then you will not be required to request permission from a third party to define yourself as spouse.
When have Republicans ever reduced taxes WITHOUT increasing the deficit? When have Republicans ever reduced the size of government? Why do Republicans believe gay Americans are not included in the US Constitution? Tsien apparently has not read that document. He also must not have read the Republican Party of Texas platfom. Why do Republicans believe it is ok to invade a foreign country? When you cannot defend your record you demonize the Democrats. Tsien is neither well informed nor discerning. If his writing is a sample of National Journalism Center graduates. I wonder if it is an accredited institution. Who are the gay women and men he respects?