Donald Trump on Sunday celebrated an opt-in survey published by the gay hook-up app Hornet which said he has the support of 45 percent of gay men in the United States.
“Great!” Trump tweeted in response to a Newsweek article discussing the poll.
Wrote Hornet in its blog post about the poll: “Of the 10,000 men Hornet surveyed, 12% identified themselves as U.S. citizens. Of those 1,200 American men, 51% answered they would be voting for Joe Biden in the upcoming presidential election, while 45% — just shy of one-half — said they would be casting their ballot for Donald Trump. Asked about their level of support for Trump's term as president, 49% responded, ‘I do not support him at all'; 11% responded, ‘I disagree with him on most issues'; 9% responded, ‘I disagree with him on some issues and agree with him on others'; 11% responded, ‘I agree with him on most issues'; and 16% responded, ‘I fully support him.'”
Newsweek wrote: “Hornet's male users may not reflect the larger LGBTQ community which largely votes Democrat, and LGBTQ voters may have soured on Trump having seen his administration's handling of queer issues. Recent polling also suggests that most LGBTQ voters will oppose Trump. A June 2020 poll of more than 30,000 registered voters conducted by the technology company Morning Consult found that 53 percent of LGBTQ-identified voters favored Biden and only 20 percent favored Trump.”
Jason Turcotte, an associate professor of communication at Cal Poly Pomona told the Washington Blade: “To hold up this poll as evidence that the LGBTQ community is somewhat split on its support for the presidential candidates is like someone saying the users of Farmers Only represent the ideological spectrum of all farmers or that Christian Mingle users represent the ideological spectrum of all Christians. To tout a Hornet poll as evidence of LGBTQ support for Trump is clickbaity, sloppy journalism.”
Added The Blade: “Despite questions surrounding the survey, the results were cited on social media as evidence the LGBTQ community is veering away from its long support of the Democratic Party by backing Trump. The Log Cabin Republicans media project Outspoken tweeted out the survey Tuesday, as did Brandon Straka, who's gay and a founder of the Walk Away movement.”
Tucker Carlson discussed the poll on his FOX News show last week, and was stunned when told of the number of gay GOP congressional staffers on Capitol Hill.
Hornet posted this update to its poll results on Sunday:
“As Hornet's survey results have now been widely reported on, it's important to note what can and should be extrapolated from this data — or, better yet, what cannot be and what should not be. Hornet's survey was a voluntary, opt-in survey of 10,000 Hornet users; those users received a one-minute survey in their Hornet inbox. It's important to acknowledge the obvious inherent biases that come with any opt-in survey, and for that reason, one must be careful in unfairly extrapolating from the data itself.
“It would simply not be proper to extrapolate from an opt-in survey such as this a prediction of voter turnout in the 2020 U.S. election — by the greater LGBTQ community, or by the gay community more specifically. In effect, the only thing truly measured by Hornet's results are the opinions of those Hornet users who chose to take the survey, not the broader Hornet user base, not gay American men, and most definitely not the broader American LGBTQ community. To infer that from the below data would be flawed.
“Nevertheless, the data presented below is an interesting peek into a community — queer men — that is rarely surveyed, despite available data concerning the LGBTQ community as a whole. And for that reason, Hornet will continue to utilize this platform of 25 million global users to attempt to answer questions about issues affecting queer men around the globe.”
