Just how many LGBT+ people voted for Donald Trump? The answer might concern you
By Will Stroude
Donald J. Trump has been elected the 45th President of the United States of American, and despite the reality TV star’s concerning stance on LGBT rights, it seems that a significant minority of the LGBT+ community helped put him there.
An exit poll published today (November 9) in the New York Times has revealed while 78% of LGBT+ voters opted for Hilary Clinton and 8% for third party candidates or abstained, a surprisingly high 14% threw their support behind Donald Trump at the ballot box.
The statistics come despite Trump’s campaign being heralded as one of the most socially divisive in recent times, with a number of xenophobic, racist, sexist and anti-LGBT policies suggested and pledges made, including support for the First Amendment Defence Act, which would see anti-LGBT discrimination legalised on religious grounds.
Trump’s running mate and soon-to-be Vice President Mike Pence hold’s extremely anti-LGBT views, including supporting conversion therapy, and Trump himself has expressed support for anti-trans bathroom laws, and called for the Supreme Court’s decision last year to introduce nationwide marriage equality to be overturned.
While the exit poll didn’t breakdown the LGBT+ vote by race, gender or other social groups, a recent article from BuzzFeed suggested that the support Trump found in the LGBT+ community came overwhelmingly from cisgender, white gay men, suggesting that the LGBT figures in the New York Times poll potentially masks what was essentially another white male group voting for the President-elect.
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