For an introduction to the topic of Lesbian and Gay voting, here is what one study finds:
A recently released study found that a phenomenal 92.5 percent of gay men and 91 percent of lesbians voted in the 2004 presidential election, and 82.4 percent of gay men and 78 percent of lesbians voted in the 2006 midterm elections. As the Los Angeles Times noted, that compares with an overall turnout of about 61 percent in 2004 and a 40 percent turnout in 2006. The financial participation of gay Americans in politics is also remarkable. This same study found that 40 percent of gay men and 31 percent of lesbians gave money to a political party within the year—compared with 7 percent of Americans overall. (In the run up to the 2008 election, the lion’s share of donations to candidates is going to Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.)
Since it is reasonable to assume that gay turnout is just as disproportionate in primary elections, and that a substantial majority of the gay population votes Democratic, this new data means that the gay vote could play a significant role in the Democratic primaries next year. As I have noted, as bad as turnout levels are in general elections, they are much worse in primaries, and still worse in caucuses. Any group that is going to vote in numbers exceeding its proportion of the general population may prove to be the margin of difference. And with respect to this community, in contrast to some other Democratic constituencies, there is less of a threshold level of mobilization that must be undertaken by the candidates in order to get them to vote, making them even more prized by candidates.
When the Obama and Donnie show hit the stage here there were numerous comments along the lines of gay people are a small part of the electorate, maybe 2 or 3 percent tops, they should STFU. I began to wonder if lesbians and gays are that small a part of the electorate, so I began searching for information. Here is some of what I found
More and more is becoming known about gay people. One of the standard lies of homophobia is that lesbians and gays are a very small group of people.
The Williams Institute of the UCLA Law School focuses its efforts on the demographics of the lesbian and gay community. The method used is to begin with official US Census information and the American Community Survey of 1.4 million households. ACS is done by the Census Bureau
What I am looking for is to learn if the gay vote is indeed not very important compared to the African American vote. And the results are surprising. The Williams Institute distributed overall gay population in proportion to the distribution of same sex households reported to the census bureau. The figure used for gay americans was 4.1% of all adults based on The National Survey of Family Growth conducted by the Center For Disease Control. The Census Bureau has a handy
Quick Facts map which gives the AA population percentage for each state. These are reported as a percentage of all people, including those under 18.
So, wwe are looking at one number that includes only adults aka voters. And another number that includes children. But the contrasts are instructive.
New England
State % Gay Adults %African Americans
Maine 5.2 0.8
New Hamp 6.6 1.0
Vermont 5.1 0.6
Massachu 5.7 6.9
Rhode Is 3.4 6.2
Connect 4.5 6.2
Mid Atlantic
New York 4.2 17.4
New Jer 3.9 14.5
Pennsyl 3.5 10.6
Maryland 4.3 29.3
DC 8.1 57.0
Delaware 3.9 20.7
SouthEast
West V 2.7 3.2
Virginia 4.0 19.7
North C 3.4 21.8
South C 3.8 29.2
Georgia 4.3 29.8
Florida 4.7 15.6
MidSouth
Alabama 2.8 26.4
Mississ 2.3 36.9
Tenn 3.4 16.8
Ken 3.4 7.5
Ark 3.2 15.7
Louisi 3.1 33.5
Texas 3.6 11.7
Oklahoma 3.5 7.7
MidWest
Ohio 4.0 11.9
Mich 3.4 14.3
Ind 3.8 8.8
Ill 3.8 15.1
Iowa 2.8 2.3
Missouri 3.8 11.5
Wiscon 3.9 6.0
Minn 4.7 4.3
North D 2.3 0.8
South D 1.9 0.8
Neb 3.4 4.3
Kansas 3.6 5.9
Mountain West
Montana 2.6 0.4
Wyoming 3.0 0.9
Colorado 5.1 4.1
New Mex 4.9 2.4
Utah 3.2 1.0
Arizona 2.8 3.6
Idaho 2.3 0.6
Pacific
Cali 5.2 6.7
Oregon 4.5 1.8
Washing 5.7 3.5
Alaska 4.1 3.7
Nev 3.9 7.7
Hiwaii 4.4 2.3
So we see some states where the gay vote is actually bigger than the AA vote. My count is 16, but the numbers are going to start dancing a congo line so I had best put this up and see who salutes.
For a more valid comparison, we would need apply two things to the black vote numbers. We would need to know what percentage in each state are adults and what the turn out rate is in each state.