POLITICS
Poll: Trump Voters Tolerate Anti-LGBTQ Candidates
Battleground state Republicans may support queer rights, but not willing to go to the mat
BY MATT TRACY
An outright majority of
Republicans across
every key swing state
admit they would tolerate
a homophobic or transphobic
candidate for public offi ce, according
to new polling conducted by
the Human Rights Campaign and
Hart Research Associates.
The poll, which featured responses
from 400 likely voters
per state across both parties in
the crucial battleground states of
Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Iowa,
Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio,
Pennsylvania, Texas, and Wisconsin,
revealed a glimpse into voters’
stances on queer issues, the
presidential race, and the Supreme
Court in the weeks leading up to
the pivotal November election.
The poll notably found that Republican
voters in most of those
states generally support LGBTQ
issues by a slight majority, but the
data importantly indicates that
those voters will give a pass to bigots
— and foreshadows the lengths
that GOP voters will go to condone
the re-election campaign of an
incumbent president who has assailed
LGBTQ rights on numerous
fronts throughout his time in the
White House.
When Republicans were asked
about their views regarding an
anti-LGBTQ rights candidate, the
results were very consistent: A majority
of GOP voters in every swing
state said it would make no difference
to them whether a candidate
harbors anti-LGBTQ views — and
less than one-third of GOP voters
in any of those states said they
would be turned off by a candidate’s
anti-LGBTQ positions.
Sixty-six percent of Florida Republicans
said the anti-LGBTQ
views of a candidate would make
no difference to them, which topped
the list, while Republicans in Texas
were most forthright about their
willingness to embrace a bigoted
candidate. Sixteen percent of Lone
Star State Republicans said they
would not only tolerate anti-LGBTQ
candidates, but would actually
Voters await their turn to cast a ballot in Ohio, one of several pivotal swing states where polls are
painting a confl icted picture on LGBTQ issues.
view them more favorably.
On the contrary, Democrats in
every battleground state said they
would view an anti-LGBTQ candidate
less favorably and a plurality
of independents in most of those
states also said they would be
turned off by such a candidate.
Furthermore, voters across the
political spectrum were asked
about the top issues on their
minds heading into the 2020 election,
and transgender issues stand
among the lowest priorities. Voters
in every battleground state, for
example, said the issue of allowing
trans athletes to participate in
sports ranked last in the list of priorities.
Jobs and the economy were
the top issues, followed by healthcare
and COVID-19.
At the same time, the data also
showed that homophobia and
transphobia are not necessarily
winning strategies in those states.
The general electorate in battleground
states is LGBTQ-friendly,
and candidates who support homophobic
or transphobic policies
do so at their own risk.
Support for the Equality Act —
the legislation that would build on
the June Supreme Court ruling on
employment protections and expand
comprehensive non-discrimination
protections for LGBTQ folks
— outweighs opposition across the
board, while a majority of voters in
REUTERS/ MEGAN JELINGER
swing states also support adoption
rights for LGBTQ parents. A majority
of voters in all of those state
except North Carolina support
same-sex marriage rights.
The poll found that most voters
in those states, minus Iowa,
also oppose banning transgender
people from the military — a clear
repudiation of President Donald
Trump’s ban on trans service members
— and a majority of voters in
every battleground state with the
exception of North Carolina oppose
allowing business owners to deny
service to LGBTQ people on the
basis of religion.
Moreover, less than a third of voters
in each of those states support
either of those two anti-LGBTQ
postures, further demonstrationg
that Trump’s anti-LGBTQ policies
primarily cater to a smaller base of
religious conservatives who nonetheless
continue to wield outsized
infl uence in the GOP.
That is further evident in the
polling numbers on trans issues.
Voters are expressing strong support
for trans rights, especially in
healthcare — which is yet another
area where the Trump administration
has specifi cally targeted trans
and non-binary Americans. Ninety
fi ve percent of voters in Arizona,
for example, believe trans people
should have equal access to medical
care as anyone else, and at
least 75 percent of voters in every
swing state said they believe trans
people should be able to live freely
and openly in accordance with
their gender identity.
When examining Trump voters
alone, at least 60 percent across all
of those states support the rights
of trans people to live openly and
freely and 87 percent say trans
folks should have equal access to
medical care.
Following the death of Supreme
Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg,
likely voters in Georgia,
Iowa, North Carolina, Ohio, and
Texas were asked whether the next
Supreme Court justice should support
LGBTQ rights, and a majority
of voters in all but one of those
states — Texas — agreed that the
next justice should indeed support
queer rights. Despite those numbers,
Trump nominated Amy Coney
Barrett, whose past indicates
that she would pose a major threat
to abortion rights, Obamacare, and
LGBTQ rights. Her dog-whistle use
of the term “sexual preference” in
her Senate confi rmation hearings
today in response to questioning
from California’s Dianne Feinstein
about whether she shared the late
Justice Antonin Scalia’s hostility
to LGBTQ rights only compounded
the view that she’s no community
ally. It is possible that Trump’s
11th hour nominiation of could
further mobilize voters against the
president in the campaign’s waning
days.
And yet, while the poll’s fi ndings
suggest Americans are supportive
of queer rights, the sincerity of
that support remains in question
as long as there are key exceptions,
such as Republican voters
in swing states making clear they
are indifferent about anti-LGBTQ
candidates and overall voters in
those states relegating trans rights
issues to the bottom of their list of
priorities at the ballot box.
As Trump continues to trail in
the polls, however, his anti-LGBTQ
actions only serve to dampen his
own re-election chances in battleground
states where most voters
support queer rights.
October 22 - November 4,10 2020 | GayCityNews.com
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