June is gay pride month in the U.S. As Americans gear up for the presidential election in November, here’s a look at how the LGBT community can be an important voter-base.
Democracy gives voice to the minorities. Nowhere is this adage more true than the upcoming U.S. presidential election as the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender community works to influence the electoral outcome through political activism. The LGBTs as a political group are almost as much in number as the Asians (
4.8%), and bigger than the Jews (
2%) And Muslims(
1%) in the U.S. They form close to
3% of the total population. Since the 2003
ruling, LGBTs have been able to live together in the U.S. A landmark ruling in 2015 by the Supreme Court
legalised same-sex marriage throughout the country. This brought to an end close to a 90 year-old struggle for equality for the LGB (not T) community. The
struggle for Transgenders continues. In the last 15 years, the U.S as a country has gone from being
against same-sex marriage to legalising it. Barack Obama’s presidency has been
seen to do the most for the LGBT community than any other American president. In 2012, incumbent presidential candidate Obama won the elections with a
margin of 34,73,402 votes. The LGBT community in the U.S is almost 9 million strong. A case can hence be made that the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender community was the key voter base that brought Obama to the finish line. Jeremy Pittman, Deputy Field Director, Human Rights Campaign, Washington DC puts it succintly, "Visibility and coming out in the open has allowed the LGBT to come together as a voting block." He also puts out two statistics that underline the strength of the LGBT community.
Friends of Equality potentially make up one-third of the voting population in the U.S. and 55% of Americans are less likely to vote for a candidate who opposes marriage equality. In 2016, the race is one of the most unexpected according to political commentators with Donald Trump's
baffling popularity which
made him the Republican President elect. To win the Republican candidacy he has made comments, pandering to the conservative Republican voter base, that have been deemed at the very least -
outrageous. Apart from calling out the Muslims and mouthing anti-immigration comments, Trump has gone on record to make many, many
statements against the LGBT community. Democratic party candidates on the other hand have concrete policies that support the LGBT cause. Both,
Hillary Clinton and
Bernie Sanders have articulated these on their websites. Work still needs to be done on getting LGBT medical access in many states and more. 78-79% of those who identify themselves as LGBT
vote for the Democratic party as seen in the previous election, according to a survey by the Pew Research Centre and the Human Rights Campaign group.
HRC is an advocacy and lobbying group for the LGBT and they have
endorsed Hillary Clinton as the Presidential candidate. However, Republican candidates are expected to move to the Centre from their extremely right-wing sentiments after winning the nomination. As Greg Reisher, Legal Managed Services Division, Thomson Reuters puts it, “Nomination is just to win the party vote while the presidential election is for everyone. So the Republican candidate will back paddle on some of these issues.” Will Trump be compelled to do so? The race between Trump and Clinton is being projected as ‘very close’ with just a single percentage point difference according to a NBC News/SurveyMonkey weekly tracking poll
released on May 31. The LGBT community might just bring the numbers that Clinton needs against Trump. The organising of the LGBT as a lobbying group also has lessons for India. Personal courage translates into public action which then compels state machinery to participate. With a sizable gay community in each metro city and countless more in the smaller ones, LGBTs in India are a number, if united, cannot be ignored by any political party and in turn the government.
This article is based on a discussion at the US Consulate in Mumbai that brought together Jeremy Pittman of the Human Rights Campaign from Washington DC; Greg Reisher, Legal Managed Services Division with Thomson Reuters; Harish Iyer an LGBT Activist and Philip Roskamp, Public Affairs Officer with the Consulate.