Date:         Wed, 03 Nov 93 09:54:42 EST
From: Ken Sherrill <KSSHC@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>

Yesyerday's VRS Exit Polls indicated that between 8-9% of the voters in New
York City's Mayoral Election were gay, lesbian, or bisexual. This is a dramatic
increase from previous exit polls, more than doubling the percentage of the
electorate self-identifying. Seventy percent of the gay vote went to David
Dinkins.

My preliminary analysis of the data indicate not that NYC has become twice as
queer, but rather that a new group of lesbians, gay men, and bisexuals are
prepared to venture forth from the closet and self-identify on anonymous exit
polls. This cohort remains very wealthy and well-educated, but is somewhat more
conservative. While Dinkins did better among white gay voters than in any
other group of white voters -- it's the only group of whites that Dinkins
carried -- Giuliani's 29% among the gay respondents may well indicate more of a
class-based vote. It also indicated to some of my colleagues in the media that
the New York Native's endorsement carries some impact. None of the media types
knew that the Native is bankrolled by Koch forces. No one remembers that pro-
gressive forces in the lesbian, gay and bisexual communities in New York are
without a medium of mass communication.


The apparent gender gap in the 1993 NYC Mayoral election disappeared when a
control for race was enetered. The gap was largely an artifact of the fact
that 66% of African-American voters were women and that Dinkins got about
95% of all African-American votes. There was a gap of 5-10% between Latina/os
and no significant difference among European-Americans.

Have other elections produced analogous results? Is the 66% women among African
American voters unusually high? (And what would Pat Moynihan say about this?)

Ken Sherrill