Candidates are courting gay, lesbian vote in Salt Lake City

[LostInTime]

Deseret Morning News
By Bob Bernick Jr. and Lee Davidson

"I've been told by the (Democratic) party and those who know city elections that if you don't do well in the GLBT (gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender) community, you don't do well" in the election, said mayoral candidate Jenny Wilson, a Salt Lake County councilwoman.

[Hazumu]

No one knows exactly how large the gay vote is in the city, or the vote by heterosexuals who actively support gay and lesbian issues.

I just love this weasel-worded sentence.  No one knows EXACTLY how large the hispanic community in my home town is, for that matter -- or EXACTLY the number of left-handed people attending the regional university.

But I bet there are people who have easily-defensible estimates of the size of the gay community and the size of the segment of the larger community who will vote in solidarity with LGBT issues.

Be wary of obfustication used to defend an emotional position...

And in the comments section of the article was someone defending the 'rights' of the WHAM's, White, Heterosexual, Able-bodied Male, from being 'discriminated' against by all the 'special interests' for first crack at the good jobs, just because they were in the majority and displayed the proper 'moral' behaviour. <sigh>

[cindianna_jones]

But the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey in 2000 estimated that Salt Lake City had 968 homes headed by gay couples (or 1,936 people). Of course, that doesn't count any gays who were not then in a live-in situation, or any same-sex couples who decided not to list themselves as such on the official census records.

They sorely underestimate the real number!  I thinhk that they are in for a big surprise!

Cindi

[Hazumu]

They sorely underestimate the real number!  I think that they are in for a big surprise!

Cindi

About a month ago I participated in a focus group conducted by an organization, Breaking Barriers, that wanted to reach out to the Trans community.  The Focus group brought together Trans, CD, and drag queens, because the organization mistakenly believed we were all similar if not just different degrees of identical.

In educating the facilitator on how it really broke out, the semi-professional drag queen said that he really enjoyed his trips to Salt Lake City to perform, as he was well paid and had quite a following there, compared to the other places he regularly performed at.

P.S., at the end of the evening, the facilitator understood the difference between a drag queen or king, a crossdresser, a transgender and a transsexual -- and admitted that his preconceptions had been all wrong (we done good!)

Karen