November 6, 2010 | Sex & Society

Gays turning against US Democrats?

Looks like more gays are voting Republican than ever before.

An exit poll found that 31 percent of people who identified as gay, lesbian or bisexual chose a Republican candidate in Tuesday's US election. That's an increase of 7 percent from 2006 numbers.

Hunter College Professor Ken Sherrill, who studies the gay electorate, agrees that the exit poll sample size is small and may not tell the full story. True, there has been anger over President Obama's slow pace on gay issues like Don't Ask, Don't Tell, but there may be more to the story.

Sherrill sees gays reacting to the same issues as other Americans, voting to express their anger over the slow economy and high jobless rates.

"There's no good reason to suggest that the shift was greater than the shift in the electorate as a whole," Sherrill said. "Given there is every reason to believe that LGB voters were as affected or more affected by the economic downturn, it's not surprising to see a shift."

The real question is whether or not this is a permanent shift in attitudes or just a one time thing.

Exit poll: Nearly a third of gays voted for GOP [The Upshot]