Gallop Polling } LGTB Could Push Obama Over the Mark

 BY ANDREW POTTS

A new report from the 
prestigious Gallup polling organization has suggested that overwhelming support in the LGBT community could be enough to win US President Barack Obama a second term in office.

The report, authored by Williams Institute Distinguished Scholar Gary J. Gates and Gallup Editor-in-chief Frank Newport finds that 71 percent of LGBT Americans who are registered voters support President Obama for re-election, while 22 percent support Mitt Romney.

From June to September, non-LGBT registered voters preferred Romney to Obama by 47 percent to 46 percent. However, the report’s authors say that when LGBT voters are added to the electorate, Obama moves slightly ahead of Romney at 47 percent to 45 percent.  

Posted on  Gaystarnews.com

These findings suggest that the highly Democratic vote of the LGBT population could be enough to swing a very close election toward Obama.

Said study Co-author Gates, ‘While LGBT voters clearly tilt toward Democratic candidates, it was clear from the data that the community is not a monolithic political group, and notably, LGBT Americans who express more conservative political preferences share many of the traits common to other Americans with those political views.’

LGBTs who swung towards Romney tended to be older, whiter and more religious.

The findings are based on more than 120,000 interviews of adults in the US, which represents the largest representative sample of LGBT men and women ever collected.

Gallup earlier this month reported that it calculated the percentage of the US population that was LGBT at 3.4 percent.

The report also found that 68 percent of LGBT Americans approved of the job that Obama had done as President, compared to 45 percent in the wider community.

Obama recently announced his support for three ballot initiatives that would legalize same-sex marriage in the states of Maine, Washington state and Maryland.