The Rainbow Vote

Why LGBTQ+ voters are a politically distinct and electorally important constituencyToday, it is not uncommon for politicians to court LGBTQ+ voters, with ads on Grindr and appearances at Pride parades. But, as Stuart Turnbull-Dugarte shows, “rainbow voters” are not merely another sociodemographic group within the larger population but a large and growing electorate with politically distinct preferences, patterns of participation, and voting behavior. In The Rainbow Vote, Turnbull-Dugarte places LGBTQ+ voters, often considered marginal in mainstream politics, at the centre of political behaviour research. Drawing on extensive survey and experimental data from Western Europe, he demonstrates that LGBTQ+ voters are, on average, more progressive than the general voting population, less likely to reproduce the politics of their parents, and especially responsive to party and candidate positions on LGBTQ+ rights. Turnbull-Dugarte argues that the lived experience of being LGBTQ+—of growing up and living in a world built around heterosexual and cisgender norms—shapes the political world-views of rainbow citizens. LGBTQ+ voters are a tribal and attentive political force that is willing not only to reward allies and advocates at the ballot box but also to punish adversaries. In the political marketplace of European democracies, green, far-left, and centre-left parties generally support LGBTQ+ inclusion; predictably, centre-right and radical right parties are resistant. Turnbull-Dugarte’s account should make both politicians and political scientists take note: the Rainbow Vote has become a consequential force in Western Europe’s democratic politics.