Trans* voting: demand and supply side of trans* politics in Germany

Abstract

<jats:p> Trans* people and trans* issues have been part of the scientific literature for over a decade, though framed most of the time under umbrella terms such as ‘LGBT’ or ‘LGBTIQ*’ and often without further consideration regarding trans*-specific issues. In this article, we take an emancipatory approach and focus on trans* people as political subjects. For the first time, we thus present data on the political preferences, attitudes and voting behaviour of trans* people in Germany, and put them in relation to the parties’ manifestos for the 2017 German general election (the 2017 Bundestagswahl). We discuss our findings in the theoretical context of trans* citizenship and trans* visibility. This approach positions trans* people as citizens in the centre of analysis and adds to our understanding of the citizenship of minority groups in our modern societies.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;<jats:bold>Key messages</jats:bold>&lt;br /&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;Left-wing and progressive parties address trans* issues and have a detailed offer for trans* voters in Germany.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;li&gt;Conservative parties neglect trans* issues while the far right openly campaigns against trans* rights.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;li&gt;Trans* voters in our survey support mostly left-wing and progressive parties.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;li&gt;The most important issues for the trans* voters in our survey were discrimination and trans*phobia.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt; </jats:p>

Voting for Diversity? Politische Einstellungen und formale politische Partizipation von schwulen und lesbischen Bürger_innen in Deutschland

“…Moreover, in Germany-as in all of Europe-gender binarism is highly institutionalized in the political and cultural system, including welfare and labor market polices, which are based on primarily heterosexual family models (Leitner 2003: 368;Leitner 2014: 40-41). Furthermore, legislation regarding the LGBTIQ* community is not as progressive as one would presume, given the country's high international reputation (Hunklinger/Ferch 2020;TGEU 2019).…”

“…In the context of Western Europe, Turnbull-Dugarte illustrated that similarly to the United States, LGBTIQ* citizens are more likely to vote for social democratic and other leftist parties (Turnbull-Dugarte 2020a, 2020b. Studies that explicitly deal with the voting behavior and political attitudes of the LGBTIQ* community in Germanspeaking countries have only been carried out recently Hunklinger/ Ferch 2020). This paper uses data from the LGBTIQ* Election Survey 2017 to examine the political attitudes (Gabriel 2009) and formal political participation (Ekman/ Amna 2012) of gay and lesbian citizens in Germany.…”

Still proud at the polls? LGBT+ rights don't dilute the sexuality turnout gap

“…Second, political parties are likely to keenly observe the mobilization of LGB voters following the enactment of LGBT+ rights (Karol, 2023). To capture this previously untapped source of votes, political parties might continue advocating for pertinent minority policies domestically, pledging to champion minority interests internationally and/or enhancing the representation of minority candidates (Hunklinger & Ferch, 2020;Spierings, 2020;Spierings et al, 2017). Third, the organizations established to support the equal rights movement are unlikely to disappear after the implementation of key LGBT+ policies (Bowers & Whitley, 2020;Egan, 2012;Hertzog, 1996;Swank & Fahs, 2016).…”

“…Drawing from the US General Social Survey data, Swank and Fahs (2019) show that LGB individuals are more than twice as likely to protest as heterosexuals (see also Turnbull‐Dugarte & Townsley, 2020). Additionally, numerous studies provide evidence of sexuality‐driven disparities in political attitudes and party preferences (Albaugh et al., 2023; Egan, 2012; Grollman, 2017; Hunklinger & Ferch, 2020; Lewis et al., 2011; Turnbull‐Dugarte, 2020b; Wurthmann, 2023).…”

From Gender Gap to Gender Gaps: Bringing Nonbinary People into Political Behavior Research

“…Hunklinger and Ferch (2020) provide an account of transgender political behavior in Germany, but they do not use a general population survey…”