lifeonq.com

We’re Here. We’re Queer. We Vote.

On the eve of the first-ever televised presidential forum on LGBT issues, research firm Community Marketing reports that gay and lesbian Americans vote in extraordinarily high percentages. The San Francisco-based company released some details today from a new national survey on gay and lesbian voting patterns, part of the Gay Consumer Indexâ„¢ and Lesbian Consumer Indexâ„¢, Community Marketing’s research into the consumer behavior and preferences of more than 12,000 gay Americans and 10,000 lesbian Americans.

The survey revealed that nine out of 10 gay men (92.5 percent) voted in the last presidential election in 2004; more than eight out of 10 (83.8 percent) in the mid-term elections last year. Lesbians voted in equally impressive numbers: nearly 91 percent in the last presidential election and 78 percent in 2006. Community Marketing compares the numbers to reports showing only 64 percent of the general population going to the polls in 2004 and a dismal 40 percent in the 2006 midterms.

Although no data was included to indicate how those numbers compared to previous elections, one can assume that Republican and religious right efforts to marginalize and oppress the LGBT community have motivated trips to the polls en masse. Efforts by gay rights activists are also likely deserving of some credit for these impressively high numbers.

And queers don’t just vote. Gays and lesbians also put their money where their ballots are. Within the last year, over 40 percent of gay men and a third (31.1 percent) of lesbians gave money to a political party.

The survey shows what the Democratic presidential candidates clearly recognize: there are plenty of queers under the party’s “big tent.” And the appeal of the Republican message of exclusion and intolerance is starting to wane. The political tide is beginning to turn away from the Republican Party, thanks to its corruption and incompetence if not for its divisiveness. It’s getting harder and harder for the Christian community to reconcile moral values with a bloody optional war, lobbyist influence peddling and of course hypocritical sexual escapades. The upcoming election cycle may see Christians of conscience voting Democratic or simply staying at home rather than be a party to Republican politics.

This turning tide explains why the Democratic presidential candidates are willing to wade into dangerous waters tomorrow night, participating in a nationally televised forum by and for the LGBT community on MTV’s Logo channel. In years past, Democrats have catered to the gay community with a wink and a nod, all the while appealing to the general population with anti-gay positions and votes. Most of the candidates oppose gay marriage but support civil unions. This is a political shell game: civil unions offer no equal protection under more than 1,000 federal laws that include the word “marriage.”

Up till now, Democrats have solicited gay votes and dollars, but have been unable or unwilling to champion equality in their message to the other 90 percent of the population. It will be interesting to see if Logo’s presidential forum will result in more tap-dancing or in taking a meaningful stance in support of gay rights.

Logo’s Visible Vote 08 presidential forum starts tonight at 9 p.m. eastern. For those whose local cable operators have refused to carry the gay channel, the forum can be watched live online, bandwidth willing. Community Marketing’s complete gay and lesbian consumer indexes, compiled from surveys conducted this spring, will be released later in August. Community Marketing specializes in research, media relations and education targeting the LGBT community.