Public Attitudes and Private Prejudices: Assessing Voters’ Willingness to Vote for Out Lesbian and Gay Candidates

Abstract

Our study concerns the factors leading to the electoral success and failure of LGBTQ candidates in the context of the changing nature of prejudices. We hypothesize that more positive views toward “respectability candidates,” as captured by familial status, has replaced explicit prejudice toward out LGBTQ candidates in societies where acceptance of sexual minorities in general has grown. In a survey experiment conducted with a sample of Canadian voters, one of the first countries to legalize marriage equality, we find suggestions that voters are more likely to reward lesbian and gay candidates who adopt heteronormative relationships (married with children vs. single) than those who do not. These patterns become more evident when we explore causal heterogeneity with controls for individual-level characteristics and attitudes that typically predict support toward lesbian and gay candidates. Here we find these predictors rewarded single lesbian and gay candidates, whereas lesbian and gay candidates with families were simply more supported across the board.

Are Openly LGBTQ2+ the New Sacrificial Lambs? Campaign Contexts and the Gendered Implications for LGBTQ2+ Candidates

“…8Interestingly, marriage may not just have been a constraint but may also have enabled lesbians and gay men to get elected, as evidenced by the electorate's positive perceptions of lesbian and gay candidates engaged in heteronormative relationships (Everitt and Horvath, 2021). …”

“…7 It should be remembered that same-sex sexual acts were criminalized in Canada until 1969, after which they were policed by other Criminal Code provisions such as the bawdy house section. 8 Interestingly, marriage may not just have been a constraint but may also have enabled lesbians and gay men to get elected, as evidenced by the electorate's positive perceptions of lesbian and gay candidates engaged in heteronormative relationships (Everitt and Horvath, 2021). 9 Indeed, the NDP had only ever had three of their LGBTQ2+ candidates elected, until an unexpected sweep took place in 2011, in which two of the five-person NDP LGBTQ2+ caucus were elected in Quebec, a region in which the NDP typically did poorly.…”

Gender and LGBT Affinity: The Case of Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne

“…The main study of LGBT affinity is a survey experiment conducted on Canadian voters (Everitt and Horvath 2021). The authors find that lesbian and gay voters were more likely to support lesbian and gay candidates.…”

“…Although scholars have given considerable attention to gender and racial/ethnic affinity, little work has considered LGBT affinity 1 . Everitt and Horvath (2021) provide experimental evidence that lesbians and gay men are more likely to support lesbian and gay candidates. However, we know from work on other groups that it is possible for experiments to show evidence of affinity even when real-world elections do not.…”

Academic Absences, Disciplinary Siloes and Methodological Prejudices within the Political Science Discipline in Canada

“…This comes in the form of making space for this research in special issues of journals and collected editions or in the actual conduct of research on these topics by those less vulnerable because of their seniority or reputations in the discipline. I would point to Graham White's leadership as editor of the CJPS at the time the special issue on Feminism in the Discipline was produced as an example of the former, and my own work on LGBTQ politics in Canada as an example of the later (Everitt, 2015;Everitt and Camp, 2009a, 2009b, 2014Everitt and Lewis, 2020;Everitt and Horvath, 2021;Everitt and Raney, 2019;Everitt and Tremblay, 2020;Tremblay and Everitt, 2020).…”