Voting Rights and Intersectional LGBTQ Populations

• In Event: Exploring the Limits of Inclusion: Race and LGBTQ Politics in the US

Abstract

This paper will examine how the push for new voter identification laws, purge of voting rolls, and other voter suppression tactics interact with socioeconomic status, race, sexual orientation, gender identity, and the intersectional identities. While much attention has been focused on how more “rigorous” state voting laws and the court decisions upholding them negatively and disproportionately affect the poor and people of color, there has been little to no academic analysis of how these policies negatively affect LGBTQ individuals and or relate to the legal obligations imposed on gender non-conforming and trans individuals seeking to change the sex/gender markers on their state issued identity documents. In particular, those individuals situated at the intersection of marginalized racial and ethnic groups and stigmatized sexual orientations and gender identities may be multiply burdened by these onerous new voting requirements which may effectively suppress and/or decrease LGBTQ voting turnout with significant consequences. As such, this paper will examine how intersectionally-suppressed LGBTQ individuals are affected by these tactics and laws in order to elucidate these hidden costs.

Author

• Courtenay W. Daum, Colorado State University