LGBT+ voters overwhelmingly favoured Joe Biden over Donald Trump, exit polls show
Democratic Presidential candidate and former US Vice President Joe Biden and US President Donald Trump (JIM WATSON,SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images)
LGBT+ voters overwhelmingly favoured Joe Biden over Donald Trump, exit polling has revealed.
An exit poll conducted by Edison Research for the National Election Pool found that Biden maintained a considerable lead among LGBT+ voters, but straight and cis people were more evenly divided.
Of the 14,318 voters polled for the sample on Tuesday (November 3), seven percent identified as gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender, while 93 percent did not.
Voters overwhelmingly favoured Joe Biden over Donald Trump
Of those who identified as LGBT+, 61 percent said they were voting for Joe Biden, while just 27 percent opted for Donald Trump.
By contrast, non-LGBT+ respondents were split between the two candidates, with polling finding 51 percent opted for Biden and 47 percent for Trump.
Human Rights Campaign President Alphonso David said: “Over the last three elections, the share of LGBTQ voters has continued to increase, solidifying our community as a key rising constituency that politicians must court.
“Our issues matter, our votes matter and politicians around the country have taken notice. But this development did not occur in a single cycle.
“Over the last two decades, and especially over the last four years, our community has organized to protect our rights — rights that have been under attack and on the ballot.
“In the most consequential election of our lifetimes, LGBTQ people showed our strength.”
US President Donald Trump and Democratic Presidential candidate and former US Vice President Joe Biden (BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI,JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images)
Ahead of polling day, Trump had touted an unscientific poll conducted on gay hook-up app Hornet that showed him winning nearly half of users.
The president took to Twitter to share an poll, which found 45 per cent of users planned on voting for Trump, compared to 51 per cent for Joe Biden. He wrote: “Great!”
The minority support for Trump in the LGBT+ community comes despite the Trump administration’s systemic attempts to dismantle civil rights protections to LGBT+ people — not least demolishing the fragile Supreme Court majority on LGBT+ rights by pushing through conservative justice Amy Coney Barrett.
Ahead of election day, the Department of Justice has spearheaded efforts to undermine discrimination protections, intervening in a legal battle to defend the right to force out a Catholic school teacher based on his sexual orientation.
Meanwhile, Trump’s housing and urban development secretary Ben Carson is seeking to impose transphobic rules that will lead to discrimination in homeless shelters, while education secretary Betsy DeVos has been accused of “extorting” school districts into adopting anti-trans athletics policies with threats to withdraw funding.
LGBT+ candidates have seen election night gains
While Trump has had a stronger-than-expected showing so far, election night has seen key victories for LGBT+ candidates.
Mondaire Jones and Ritchie Torres have become the first out LGBT+ Black and Afro-Latino congressmen, helping to bring up the representation of LGBT+ people in the US House.
State-level races have also seen a number of victories for diverse queer candidates. Meanwhile, Human Rights Campaign’s own Sarah McBride has made history as the first transgender woman ever elected to a state senate in Delaware.
