Courting the Gay Vote - presidential candidates for year 2000

Progressive, The, Sept, 1999 by John Nichols

To the consternation of the Christian Coalition, Dole and McCain (who rank second and third in most polls) have also been preaching the big-tent rhetoric that almost disappeared from the GOP lexicon following the 1994 Gingrich revolution. "They may not be saying a lot of what we want to hear, but they're trying to put some distance between themselves and the radical right," explains Vaid. "A willingness to, at the least, say that you won't discriminate against gays and lesbians has become a litmus test for candidates who want to establish their moderate credentials--which is important for Republicans who want to compete in November."

The rationale for this broadened appeal to gays and lesbians is understandable. Exit polls following the 1998 Congressional elections indicated that 5 percent of voters identified as gay or lesbian. In some key states, the numbers were significantly higher. And that, argues Mixner, is only the beginning. "The `gay vote' goes a lot further than the gay and lesbian community," he explains. "When one of us comes out of the closet, we bring three or four votes with us. When I came out, my parents, my relatives, my friends suddenly became a lot more aware of the need to vote for candidates who support gay and lesbian rights. If I say to someone who loves me, `Look, you can't vote for this candidate because he would deny me basic rights or he would use his office to encourage violence against me,' they get it."

Mixner's view is supported by Democratic polling that suggests one in seven of the votes Bill Clinton collected in his 1992 Presidential run came from people who voted for him because of indications that he would support lesbian and gay rights initiatives.

But can Republicans really be serious when they make subtle appeals for lesbian and gay votes? You bet. The notion that lesbians and gay men tend exclusively toward the Democratic column has been disproven by exit polling that indicates between one-quarter and one-third of self-identified lesbian and gay voters cast their ballots for GOP contenders. Indeed, in some instances where Republicans have been out front in their support of lesbian and gay rights--such as former Massachusetts Governor William Weld, Senator Jim Jeffords of Vermont, and Representative Tom Campbell of California--lesbian and gay voters have been credited with helping provide the GOP margin of victory.

Still, Vaid and other lesbian and gay activists doubt that any of the GOP's Presidential contenders will show the sort of courage that Weld did during his two terms as governor when he appointed openly gay officials to powerful state posts, signed a sweeping gay rights bill, and worked to protect people with AIDS against discrimination. "All the Republican Presidential candidates in 2000 are bad and degrees of worse," says Vaid. "Pat Buchanan, Gary Bauer, Steve Forbes--they don't provide a very hopeful picture. Even George W. Bush, for all his talk about `compassionate conservatism,' has failed to support anti-hate-crimes legislation. He is the sitting governor of a state that still has sodomy laws on the books. He says gay adoption is wrong. So I think that most of the gay and lesbian vote will probably end up going to the Democrats in November 2000."