The Organizational and Attitudinal Roots of LGB Political Incorporation

• In Event: Interest Group and Party Alliances in Historical Perspective

Abstract

Previous research has identified issue conversion among politicians (Karol 2012) and alliance formation (Baylor 2017) as mechanisms that explain party positions on LGB rights. Whether LGB people are a captured constituency is contested in existing literature (Bishin and Smith 2013; Frymer 1999; McThomas and Buchanan 2012; Smith 2007). Building on this work, this paper argues that the interest group membership of delegates to party nominating conventions, as well as delegates' attitudes about interest groups who represent marginalized groups, have contributed to LGB people's capture in the party system. Using time series, cross-sectional data from the Convention Delegate Studies, I demonstrate that, between 1980 and 2012, Democratic Party delegates who are members of racial justice and women’s interest groups, and who have warm attitudes about feminists and African Americans, were the most pro-gay in the party. There are few linkages between union membership and pro-gay attitudes. Second, pro-gay forces at party nominating conventions were more likely to align with losing candidates, suggesting that they were not aligned with dominant party forces in the process of candidate nominations. Third, delegates who dislike LGB people were more likely to support conducting party business by “downplaying issues to win” and “minimizing disagreements in the party.” These findings demonstrate that LGB people’s closest allies were people from and sympathetic to marginalized political constituencies and that party alignments forged at the intersections of race, gender, sexuality, and class have contributed to LGB people’s marginal position in party politics.

Author

• Andrew Thomas Proctor, Wake Forest University