According to the new nationwide poll from Zogby International, more than six in ten U.S. voters say they could support an openly gay candidate for president of the United States, and 70% say they'd support the appointment of an openly gay cabinet secretary.

The Victory Fund writes on their web site:

The poll results come just a week after an openly gay congressional candidate, Jared Polis, won his Democratic primary in Colorado.  If Polis wins the general election in November, he would become the first non-incumbent, openly gay man ever elected to Congress.  Rep. Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin, elected in 1998, was the very first openly gay or lesbian person to win a seat in Congress as a non-incumbent. 

Sixty-six percent of poll respondents said they could support an openly gay vice-presidential candidate, while 69% said a gay candidate for U.S. Senate could get their vote.  The poll of 1,089 adults was conducted August 13 to 15 for the Gay & Lesbian Leadership Institute (GLLI), a non-partisan leadership development organization.

“These results prove that most Americans want to be fair to gay people.  Our aspiration is to always see each other as individuals first, and though we may not always succeed at that, our underlying fairness and decency means that one day soon we will.  This marks tremendous progress for our community and for the voting public,” said Chuck Wolfe, president and CEO of GLLI.

GLLI has convened a project to identify and prepare openly lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) candidates to serve the next administration as presidential appointees.  The Presidential Appointments Project is a non-partisan effort supported by GLLI, the Human Rights Campaign, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, National Stonewall Democrats, Log Cabin Republicans, the National Black Justice Coalition, Pride at Work, the National Center for Transgender Equality and Federal GLOBE.  Nearly 700 applicants have begun the application process so far.

More than 415 openly LGBT elected officials serve at every level of government throughout the United States, a ten-fold increase in just the last two decades.  At the federal level, five openly gay or lesbian Members have served in the U.S. House of Representatives, including current Reps. Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin and Barney Frank of Massachusetts.  Both are Democrats.  No openly LGBT candidate has yet been elected to the U.S. Senate.

Last update: 01-29-2009 18:40