Hillary Clinton. (ISABEL INFANTES/AFP via Getty)
Ah, the pre-Trump era. What a time! But in a staggering study, just 52 per cent of queer and trans women voted for Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in 2016.
While Clinton received a surge in support from queer women, a surprising amount did not, opting to vote for third-party candidates or even Donald Trump, research has showed.
The report from women’s advocacy group LPAC earlier this week polled 400 LGBT+ adults over their political engagement.
However, the findings of the report skew the traditional outlook that the community is significantly more likely than non-LGBT+ Americans to align with the Democrats.
In the survey, 11 per cent cast a ballot for Trump, around one in 10 voted for an independent candidate such as Gary Johnson.
While 24 per cent opted to not vote at all and stay at home.
Trans folk are the most fervently politically motivated out of the community, study claims.
But overall, the survey indicated that queer and trans women strongly lean to the left even if the individual does not support the party leader.
Around 64 per cent of queer and trans women identified as Democrats in 2016; 17 per cent as independents and 13 per cent as Republicans..
Those surveyed were also more politically engaged than queer and trans men.
Eighty-one per cent of LBT+ women felt more motivated to take part in civil activists, as opposed to 77 per cent of GBT+ men.
And out of the vibrant community, trans folk were the most likely to engage in issues they care about, with 85 per cent jumping into action regardless of other the issue directly impacts them or the wider community.
Furthermore, queer and trans women widely outpaced all other demographics when it came to citing climate change as a key political issue for them, Out reported.
LPAC senior director for research and political engagement Lisa Turner told the outlet that the group “[outpaced] all adults by significant margins” when it came to the environment.
“We did not expect this level of intensity,” she told Out in an email.
Turner sketched out how non-college educated LBT+ women are an un-tapped and powerful demographic for “progressive candidates” this upcoming election, according to the data.
“[LBT+] women voters in the Midwest region of the country, if engaged on the issues that are important to them, could have a direct and consequential impact in the 2020 election cycle,” she said.
Nearly two in 10 LBT+ women do not plan to vote in the 2020 elections.
But disturbingly, 17 per cent of those surveyed that they have no plans to vote in 2020, just as nine per cent of GBT+ men said.
The takeaway from the data to Turner? “Often the interests of the [LGBT+] community are conflated with the interests of gay men,” she said.
“[LBT+] women make up the majority of the [LGBT+] community, and as an organization that seeks to raise the political voice of [LBT+] women, LPAC has long suspected from anecdotal evidence that the issues and causes that drive their civic participation are different from those of [LGBT+] men.”