Should gay candidates come out of the (political) closet? Study says yes

Image result for gay political candidates
www.uc.edu
Should gay candidates come out of the
(political) closet? Study says yes

"LGBT elected officials make tremendous public servants because
they are painfully aware of the impact policies have on people's lives."

A political science researcher finds that the sexual orientation of LGBT candidates no longer poses an impediment to being elected to public office -- and, in some cases, may actually help them win.  Drastic shifts in public opinion in the last decade have seen an uptick in gay and lesbian candidates running for -- and winning -- public office as never before.

But experts often advise even openly gay and lesbian candidates to downplay their sexual orientation or risk losing votes.

Now, a new study by David Niven, an assistant professor of political science at the University of Cincinnati, calls that advice into question.

The research suggests that not only does a gay or lesbian candidate's sexual orientation no longer pose a political disadvantage, but that, in some cases, it may actually help them win office.

"Our results call into question the always and everywhere assumption that running as a gay or lesbian candidate is necessarily a hurdle that must be overcome," said Niven.

LGBT candidates are often advised to downplay their sexual orientation for good reason, says Niven. He points to an established body of research documenting how a candidate's sexual orientation can be an impediment to higher office.

"All the research that we have says you have to overcome and to downplay it," he said.

That conclusion, based largely on surveys, offers subjective and interpretive data on how voters react to fictional or hypothetical candidates, but little in the way of how voters respond to actual candidates once they're in a private voting booth, Niven said.

So he decided to test the theory in a real race, with real voters casting ballots for real candidates. Enter the 2016 March primary race for county recorder in Ohio's Franklin County, which includes Columbus.

The Study
Two Democratic candidates vied for the position: Incumbent Terry Brown, an openly gay man seeking his second term in office, and challenger Danny O'Connor, who is straight.

The match-up proved an ideal field study, said Niven. While Brown's website features a photograph of him and his husband, neither he, his opponent nor the "Democrats United" ticket both candidates ran with referenced Brown's sexual orientation or interests in advancing civil rights issues.

Moreover, the low-key race for county recorder drew only minimal media attention, none of which identified Brown as gay, said Niven.

Niven randomly chose 30 precincts for the study. Because most gay and lesbian candidates tend to compete in places where Democrats are likely to win, he said, only households with a registered Democrat in residence were included.

Fifteen of the precincts received one of three 4x6 glossy postcards featuring Brown, while the other half, serving as a control group, received no mailing.

  • The first mailer featured a photograph of Brown and listed his efforts to save taxpayer money, improve the efficiency of the recorder's office and commitment to stamping out real estate fraud.
  • A second mailer included the same campaign claims, but featured a photograph of the candidate and his husband.
  • A third mailing repeated the claims of the previous two and included the same photograph as in the second mailing, but added an additional claim of the candidate's commitment to marriage equality for gay people. 

The Results
Brown ultimately lost the race to O'Connor, but not because of his sexual orientation or commitment to marriage equality, says Niven.

According to the study, Brown actually received slightly less votes from voters who received the first mailer (which included only a photo of him) than he did from those in the control group who didn't receive any mailers.

Swapping a mailer featuring a photograph of the candidate with one of Brown and his husband produced slightly more votes, comparable to those of the control group. That increase, while negligible, speaks volumes, said Niven.

"Study after study suggests there is some kind of penalty gay and lesbian candidates are subject to without exception. That decidedly did not happen here," he concluded.

The results of the third condition, in which voters received a mailer featuring a photograph of the candidate and his husband and listing his commitment to marriage equality, also defied conventional campaign wisdom, says Niven.

In that scenario, Brown received more than four percent more votes than he did in all of the other scenarios.

"A lot of races are won on four percent," said Niven. "This is a pretty startling jump in terms of getting people's attention in a race they wouldn't otherwise give two thoughts about."

Niven says the results strongly suggest that emphasizing Brown's commitment to the rights of gay and lesbian people gave him a political edge.

"He's not just filing deeds, he's on the front lines of the civil rights struggle," he explained. "This is what was compelling to people."

Building Political Power

Niven acknowledges the limitations of the study, which focused on how Democratic voters in a specific region responded in one race. He's planning a follow-up study of the wider electorate this fall.

Nonetheless, he says the data indicates that the nation might be closer to a state of post-gay politics than some realize.

"When candidates hide or downplay their sexual orientation, it sends a message that significant barriers remain for gay and lesbian candidates," Niven said. "This study shows they might be hiding from a reality that isn't as bad as they think."

That comes as welcome news to Aisha C. Moodie-Mills, president and CEO of the Victory Fund, a nonpartisan organization that supports openly lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender candidates running for public office.

She said the study indicates a growing appreciation amongst voters for LGBT candidates who are open about their lives and policy positions.

"LGBT elected officials make tremendous public servants because they are painfully aware of the impact policies have on people's lives, and therefore think critically about the issues confronting them," she said. "This research offers important insights into the advantages of being an openly LGBT candidate in certain political environments, and provides a fresh perspective on strategies for building long-term political power."

Story Source: Materials provided by University of Cincinnati, original written by Rachel Richardson. "Should gay candidates come out of the (political) closet? Study says yes." ScienceDaily, 12 September 2016. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How the lives of Georgian gaolbirds and highwaymen shaped modern Britain

Image
Writing historical fiction requires solid research of available materials and databases.  The key word here is available.   So news of a new publicly accessible database that allows an author to research a very interesting past era is priceless almost beyond words.   I expect some exciting fiction to come out of this announcement. Here's the story, with a link to the source in the attribution. *  *  *  *  * London Lives, a landmark project led by Professor Bob Shoemaker from the University of Sheffield and Professor Tim Hitchcock from the University of Sussex, has uncovered a mass of extraordinary new evidence which reveals how the lives of thousands of 18th-century poor and criminal Londoners helped shape modern Britain. Based on evidence made available in a publicly available database, the study sheds new light on the everyday lives of thieves, prostitutes, vagrants, highwaymen, con-men, paupers and jailbirds, revealing how their daily fight for survival led to t
Read more

An unexpected way to recover from a breakup

Image
Breaking up is truly hard to do. And recovery from a breakup can be even harder. Your friends may counsel you to put the whole thing out of your mind. But new research suggests that repeatedly reflecting on a break-up -- even through participation in a research study -- actually speeds emotional recovery. "Breakups are ubiquitous -- most adults have experienced at least one in their life -- and are typically very distressing," says Grace Larson of Northwestern University. After studying divorce and breakups for years using longitudinal, multi-method designs, Larson and her then-adviser David Sbarra of the University of Arizona wanted to study whether these research techniques on their own were affecting participants. One concern they had was that the studies could be harming participants, Larson says. "At first glance, it might seem like repeatedly reminding participants that they had just broken up -- and asking them to describe the breakup over and over --
Read more

Greek Bronze Age ended 100 years earlier than thought

Image
Source: www.shef.ac.uk The charred remains of Assiros Toumba in Greece. Writing historical fiction set in the Greek Bronze Age?  Or simply enjoy reading this genre'?  Here's a study you may find interesting. C onventional estimates for the collapse of the Aegean civilization may be incorrect by up to a century, according to new radiocarbon analyses. While historical chronologies traditionally place the end of the Greek Bronze Age at around 1025 BCE, this latest research suggests a date 70 to 100 years earlier. www.weather-forecast.com Archaeologists from the University of Birmingham selected 60 samples of animal bones, plant remains and building timbers, excavated at Assiros in northern Greece, to be radiocarbon dated and correlated with 95.4% accuracy using Bayesian statistical methodology at the University of Oxford and the Akademie der Wissenschaften Heidelberg, Germany. Researcher Dr Ken Wardle says, 'These new results tell a story that is totall
Read more

Mood Instability and Your Characters

Image
You're putting together a character who's mood simply bounces all over the place, happy one moment, in a fit of rage the next.  Researchers at King's College London note that this sort of mood instability is part of a number of mental health disorders.  So how do you structure the personality and behavior of a character like this?  Below is the King's College report, along with a brief description from mentalhealth.com, of typical behavior, sometimes in the extreme, of a person who is very emotionally unstable.  This is offered strictly as a guide for crafting character in fiction - and NOT for the amateur diagnosis of the state of someone's mental health.  That is always best left to trained professionals. Another note about emotionally unstable behavior:  as any parent will tell you, this is how adolescents and teen-agers often behave.  It's a normal part of growing up - but it is a matter of degree .  In the extreme, however, this behavior can be diag
Read more

Remember faces but not names? You got it wrong.

Image
Source:   Daily Excelsior So, you think you're good at remembering faces, but terrible with names? New research has revealed we are actually better at remembering names than faces The cringe-worthy experience of not being able to remember an acquaintance's name leads many of us to believe we are terrible with names. However, new research has revealed this intuition is misleading; we are actually better at remembering names than faces. With the Christmas party season fast approaching, there will be plenty of opportunity to re-live the familiar, and excruciatingly-awkward, social situation of not being able to remember an acquaintance's name. This cringe-worthy experience leads many of us to believe we are terrible at remembering names. However, new research has revealed this intuition is misleading; we are actually better at remembering names than faces. The authors of the study, from the University of York, suggest that when we castigate ourselves f
Read more