Posted on 04/17/2006 11:50:18 AM PDT by lizol
Britain's Conservatives winning greater share of gay vote: poll
LONDON (AFP) - The election of David Cameron as leader of Britain's main opposition Conservative Party has delivered it a significant boost among the gay community, according to a survey.
The poll for website PinkNews.co.uk suggested that 29.7 percent of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered (LGBT) voters in England said they would back the Tories under Cameron in the forthcoming local elections on May 4.
That figure compares with just 19.2 percent who voted for the party under its previous leader, Michael Howard, at the 2005 general election.
Prime Minister Tony Blair's governing Labour Party was still the party of choice, the survey showed, but its 37.5 percent rating was 4.5 points down on the 42 percent of the gay vote it received last year.
Cameron, 39, was elected leader of the Conservatives in December last year. With a slick, telegenic style, he is widely viewed as the man to lead the Tories back to power following Labour's three successive general election wins. He has since appointed a millionaire lesbian businesswoman to a leading role and made much of the need to boost the party's female and ethnic minority representation in parliament.
But while 41 percent of all LGBT voters polled agreed that "the election of David Cameron... made me see the Conservatives in a more positive light", suspicion remained that his more inclusive approach was not universally shared.
Some 46 percent thought the traditional party of the ruling classes was homophobic, with a majority (61 percent) blaming grassroots activists for a failure to embrace more modern attitudes to sexuality.
PinkNews.co.uk editor Benjamin Cohen said the survey showed Cameron was moving the party towards more liberal ground.
But he added: "The fact that 46 percent of our community still believe that the party is homophobic, must be a wake-up call to Mister Cameron and his chairman Francis Maude to engage even more with LGBT voters."
PinkNews.co.uk polled 600 readers selected to be demographically representative of LGBT people in England.
Ping
Log Cabin Tories?
Andrew Sullivan must be so proud.
This is because the Left has become so stupid that not even the turd burglars can bring themselves to support it.
So what's that add up to? 150 votes?
Keep in mind, this is almost-Europe we're talking about. The lines are... a bit fuzzier there.
Isn't this is the first Tory leader with hair in like two decades.
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