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The Gay Vote Gave Obama His Majority...

Discussion in 'Current Events, World News, & LGBT News' started by Rakkaus, Nov 10, 2012.

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  1. Rakkaus

    Rakkaus Guest

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    Some interesting things to note about the voting habits of queer Americans.

    For one thing, the number of voters identifying as lesbian, gay, or bisexual is up from 4% to 5% It had been stuck at 4% for the past 3 elections. Still probably lower than our numbers, but a good sign nonetheless.

    But even more interestingly, according to the exit polls, this year's race between Obama and Romney was a 49-49 TIE among heterosexuals. That means it was the massive 76-22 margin break of LGB voters against Romney that provided Obama's overall margin of victory.

    Also of note that the 22% of the gay vote that Romney won is the lowest % ever for a Republican candidate, worse than Bush and McCain. While heterosexual America overall preferred Romney 12 to McCain 08, gay voters went the other way and swung harder than ever against the GOP this year.

    Just another of the many minorities the GOP alienated for good this year...


    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]
     
    #1 Rakkaus, Nov 10, 2012
  2. Pret Allez

    Pret Allez
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    This is fantastic, thanks for finding this! I still feel really politically powerless though and like we're at the mercy of straight people. I am really glad to know we made a difference this time.
     
    #2 Pret Allez, Nov 10, 2012
  3. Phoenix

    Phoenix Guest

    I am the 22%. It seemed appropriate.
     
    #3 Phoenix, Nov 10, 2012
  4. BradThePug

    BradThePug
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    That's pretty cool! It's cool that 5% of voters could make a difference.
     
    #4 BradThePug, Nov 10, 2012
  5. lazyboy

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    So I can stop praying for you now?
     
    #5 lazyboy, Nov 10, 2012
  6. Miz Purple

    Miz Purple
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    Yeah I had feeling although CBS claimed he won because of women, Hispanics , and young voters , I kept yelling at the tv what about us gays! Lol although I don't doubt that women and Hispanics voted for him, I'm glad they did.it ,makes sad that we as a community had such a great victory in the 3 states and of course it wasn't mentioned on the news.
     
    #6 Miz Purple, Nov 10, 2012
  7. sguyc

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    He did win because of women, hispanics, and young voters (young voters in the sense that he actually got their lazy asses to the polling stations). They are much larger demographics than lgbts. LGBTs were not a deciding factor in this election, they go democratic every election. Its like saying that Obama won because of the 92% african american vote. He was going to get it anyway (any democrat would, though arguably Obama brought out more black voters than in previous elections).
     
    #7 sguyc, Nov 10, 2012
  8. Tails Luver

    Tails Luver
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    I'm in the 22%, but that's mainly because his LGBT policy was one of the only things I didn't agree with. Almost everything else I did.
     
    #8 Tails Luver, Nov 10, 2012
  9. Phoenix

    Phoenix Guest

    Ditto
     
    #9 Phoenix, Nov 10, 2012
  10. Rakkaus

    Rakkaus Guest

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    Heh, yeah, I was surprised myself when I saw those numbers. The Republicans' lack of support among minorities was the story of this election, but I never thought that a group as small as queer voters might actually have cast the decisive votes in this election.

    I think it is poetic justice when you think back to the Republican National Convention, where the GOP tried to pander to blacks, Hispanics, females, and every other minority with token speakers and a few Spanish words... but apparently thought LGBTQ people were too small a group to matter and thus they didn't even pretend that they cared about us or even wanted our support. Now this tiny minority might have made the difference.

    Even Fox News admitted the possibility that Romney's alienation of gay voters might have cost him in close states like Ohio:

    How gays in Ohio could have won the election for Romney | Fox News


    Nationwide, it's possible that Romney might actually have WON the straight vote.

    In which case, the gays are to blame for forcing Obama and the homosexual agenda on heterosexual America. But sane straight people have gay people to thank for saving them from other straight people... :icon_wink
     
    #10 Rakkaus, Nov 10, 2012
  11. Gold Griffin

    Gold Griffin
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    I think it can generally be summed up that Romney lost on account of him alienating every single minority group in America simultaneously.
     
    #11 Gold Griffin, Nov 10, 2012
  12. Rakkaus

    Rakkaus Guest

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    Yes, of course Obama's winning coalition was dependent upon black, Hispanic, young, female, etc. voters. Nobody would claim a small minority like LGBTQ people won an election all on their own. But queer people were an important part of the coalition.

    However, here we have isolated just one variable: people who identify as gay, lesbian or bisexual versus those who don't. What the data suggests is that Obama might not have won without gay votes.

    Among all heterosexual voters (whether they be white, black, Hispanic, female, male, young, old), there was an even split in support between Obama and Romney, a tie.

    Among all LGB voters (whether they be white, black, Hispanic, female, male, young, old), there was a lopsided margin in support for Obama over Romney.

    In a close nationwide race in which Obama is winning by 2-3 points, the exit polling data clearly suggests that LGB voters helped break the tie in favor of Obama.

    ========================================



    Think of it in terms of a class election. You might have a huge class of a 1000 kids.

    950 (95%) kids are straight and 50 (5%) are gay.

    The straight kids divide evenly, giving 475 votes to Obama and 475 to Romney.

    Among the gay kids, 38 (76%) vote for Obama while 11 (22%) vote for Romney...thus the final result:

    475+38 = 513 Obama
    475+11 = 486 Romney

    That's how even a small 5% minority of the population like gay people could have influenced and possibly even determined the outcome of this election. That's also why voting as a Democratic bloc gave the LGBTQ community far more influence on the election than if we had been more divided.
     
    #12 Rakkaus, Nov 10, 2012
  13. Pret Allez

    Pret Allez
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    Also, if you read the article Rakkaus posted, the math they did at FOX is assuming that in a perfect world, LGBT people would vote with approximately the same distribution as everyone else, and on the basis of that assumption, Romney should have won Ohio. But the point is, LGBT people were not as evenly distributed as everyone else. As a community, we overwhelmingly rejected Romney, and because of how the numbers worked out, we made a meaningful difference.

    Of course we're not the only ones, but that's only trivially true.

    Also, a very important consequence of that is that we're the smallest minority of all of them. So if the Republicans also had policies to help undocumented immigrants (say, had they supported the DREAM act rather than hoping to die in agony first), they would have certainly had a much better chance with Latino and Latina voters. Which means that objective data exists to support the conclusion that bigotry is the main thing killing them right now.
     
    #13 Pret Allez, Nov 10, 2012
    Last edited: Nov 10, 2012
  14. Fruitylicious

    Fruitylicious
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    ^Same
     
    #14 Fruitylicious, Nov 10, 2012
  15. MC Nickayyy xD

    MC Nickayyy xD
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    That one place, you know, by that one thing.
    Despite his lgbt ideas, I would've voted Romney, but I'm 15 xP
     
    #15 MC Nickayyy xD, Nov 10, 2012
  16. Revan

    Revan
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    It's always amusing to see the Republicans comments here on the site. I used to be the type who would say something critical about them voting for Romney, now instead I'll just sit here and smirk. After all, silence is golden.
     
    #16 Revan, Nov 10, 2012
  17. MC Nickayyy xD

    MC Nickayyy xD
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    ^ you posted so you weren't silent. xD just messin. Obama won so there's no point arguing.
     
    #17 MC Nickayyy xD, Nov 10, 2012
  18. Revan

    Revan
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    Precisely. But no i may have posted but I didn't post something critical, thus still silent in that regards.
     
    #18 Revan, Nov 10, 2012
  19. MC Nickayyy xD

    MC Nickayyy xD
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    In those regards yes, but not silent overall. c: btw nice to meet you ^_^
     
    #19 MC Nickayyy xD, Nov 10, 2012
  20. Fruitylicious

    Fruitylicious
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    Also, just pointing this out here, I am not a Republican:slight_smile:

    I am Independent, I don't fully support all the Republicans beliefs and I don't fully support the Democrats beliefs, so I chose to be Independent and try to keep my opinion unbiased when it comes to political concerns among other things.
     
    #20 Fruitylicious, Nov 10, 2012
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