Poll: Do you think there will be more openly gay prime minsters and presidents in the next 20 years

[maxben]

Probabely not. If they've any sense they'll do what the straight leaders do and STFU about their private lives.
No one gives a crap about their private lives.
Most politicians with any sense only mention their wives husbands, children, etc, when they have to.
It's not about the partners, etc, it's about the leaders.

If they're one of those extremely irritating attention seekers who round shouting about how they're lesbian, gay, bisexual, etc, look at me, ar'nt I a precious ickel snowflake, than they won't last more than 5 minutes.
And will be grindingly annoying.
They'll have pissed off even the most tolerant of people after a minute. Like all of the obnoxiously GLBT people do.
They'll be kicked out of their own parties, never mind get ripped up by the media.

It may be all about the image to a degree, but a leaders got to have policies and ability.
Even if they're corrupt, they've got to have the brains to stay in power.
People dont elect people without some ability to leader, unless it's Berlesconi levels of corruption, or something.

Given what twatbaskets the obnoxious LGBT people are, I don't want to see any more of them in power.
The straight ones at least have the sense to do what most straight people do, and not act like their sexuality makes them a precious ickle snowflake and all must love them.

That is such bull. Most politicians talk forever about their wives, children, mother, childhood dog, etc for no reason whatsoever. You're also wrong, people care. That's why parties tend to pick married candidates and why there are so few unmarried or childless ones. Can you even imagine a straight President with a baby momma? No way in hell is he getting elected. Your whole point of view of how voters function as a large group is completely ridiculous. ESPECIALLY on the right where talking about your family nonstop is essential to your platform for the "values voters".

 

[QuicklyAcross]

1. Where is the poll?
2. How and why will it matter?

The way i see it the answer is yes but on the other hand im also very apathetic against such things as "more gay/trans/lgbt in (insert area here)"
more openly gay game developers
more openly gay restaurant owners
more openly gay celebrities

I dont believe that matter or should matter to anyone since i dont believe it is a choice.
You can choose who you love but not what type of person they will be or whatever physical attributes they will hold.

 

[BlumiereBleck]

Short answer: No. Long answer: No, the percentage of Americans that are openly gay or lesbian are less than 4% of the total U.S. population. So the likelihood of a politician who's ideals are one the nation wants and who just so happens to be gay being elected, is very VERY slim.

 

[Callate]

Well, there are far more today than there were twenty years ago, when "outing" was typically enough to end someone's political career. (It still is, in some cases, of course.)

So I would say that, yes, there will almost certainly be more gay/lesbian elected officials in twenty years. Whether they'll rise as high as president or prime minister, I couldn't say, but I think it's a far more likely possibility than it has been in the past.

 

[Jamieson 90]

Here's a question. Will the UK get a black/Asian/minority Prime Minister before they get an overtly gay one?

If I had to make a bet, I'd say we'll get a gay PM before an ethnic minority one. Not so much because of racism per se but because of social demographics. In this country there are relatively few black people in the political classes and it's pretty rare for one to make it very far in politics. Obviously that's a bad thing but I don't see it changing as fast as acceptance of homosexuality, which pretty much crosses class boundaries (if anything, it's probably *more* prevalent in upper-middle-class circles)

Having said that, I think very few people would have expected us to get a female prime minister before the end of the 20th Century, and women are still hugely underrepresented in parliament, so I guess it only ever takes one person to break the mould.

Captcha: Well done. Yes, indeed. Well done Maggie.

And the chances of getting a gay Prime Minister who also happens to be black and a woman?

Dear god can you imagine what the bigots would be like if that happened? It'd be funny seeing their reactions if nothing else.

 

[Haukur Isleifsson]

I'm hoping to be able to vote for Páll Óskar Hjálmtýrsson for president of Iceland in the next presidential elections (He is homosexual). I really would have liked it if he had run and been elected the last time. Then we would have had a homosexual person as both president and prime minister at the same time. That would have been epic. But I'll settle for just having them serve in the same decade.

 

[Lieju]

I personally dont think it matters. A politicians sexuality is their own business and noone elses

More importantly when will people stop caring if people are straight or gay. It really doesnt make one iota of difference if you like men or women. The only instance where it would ever matter would be if I was trying to get with a girl who was a lesbian and even then it would only stop an awkward moment.

People need to stop identifying themselves by their sexuality and yes straight people do this more than gay people

I'm a lesbian and I'd really love this to be the case.

But unfortunately there are all kinds of misconceptions about sexual minorities, and since I don't tell people I'm gay unless it comes up somehow, a lot of people will then assume I'm straight and crack homophobic jokes or talk about gays as 'them', or about what 'those' are like.

So I sort of have this feeling I should tell people more often I'm gay, but on the other hand it's none of their business.

But it's far easier to discriminate against a group if you don't personally know anyone like that. Or think you don't.

 

[P912]

Within 20 years? Definitely. In my opinion, it would still have to be a homosexual with a family e.g. they would still need the money shots of Jack Awesome with his loyal partner John Awesome and their three happy smiling adopted kids. My gut tells me that this has two implications: this stable family man has a stable personality that won't go nuts and decide to nuke Germany in retaliation for Uwe Boll, and that anyone who can run a family can run a country with that same mix of love, discipline and good old fashioned values freedom god democracy patriotism do the right thing etc. But there are probably people out there who have already analysed this to death: half of them are probably out there working on how to make this magic formula compatible with gays.

 

[hermes]

In 20 years? I doubt it.

Those positions are mostly popularity contests and highly traditional. There has been shown that many people are hesitant to vote for a candidate that is single, divorced or non religious, and those are social status that have been publicly recognized in society for a lot longer than homosexuality...