Less Gay People Voted Democrat This Election

Yahoo News reports that President Barack Obama's efforts to stop the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" is resulted in the LGBT community voting more Republican.

Exit polling commissioned by the major cable news networks has found that 31 percent of people who identified as gay, lesbian or bisexual voted for Republicans on Election Day. That represents a big uptick from the 24 percent of gays who voted for the GOP in 2006 and from only 19 percent who did so in 2008. The trend appears to bear out pre-Election Day predictions from gay rights organizers that gay voters were angry and disenchanted with Democrats for not delivering on promises to the community.

The sample size of the poll was small. However, gays and lesbians will defect if Obama keeps fighting the repeal of DADT in court. The LGBT community will pay attention, as they did when the White House killed Alcee Hastings DADT repeal amendment. If anyone thinks the gay community will continue to vote Democrat when the party opposes gay rights then that person is denial.

I remember asking a member of the Florida Democratic Party what will be their response if Equality Florida endorses Charlie Crist. The person was totally dismissive and told me that if Equality Florida wanted to "embarrass" itself that was it's problem. That kind of attitude will drive LGBT votes toward the Republican Party.

Update: I should have made this clear in the post. Equality Florida does not endorse candidates in federal races.