Grindr Asks: Going to the Polls in France

· Updated on May 29, 2018

All eyes are on France this week in the run-up to their run-off. The election will pit radical right-winger, Marine Le Pen, who would become the country’s first female presidentand has vowed to abolish gay marriage in France, against the centrist newcomer, Emmanuel Macron, whose background is primarily in business.

In anticipation of the election’s first round, Grindr for Equality partnered with the French advocacy group, Inter-LGBT, to encourage political participation among users. The partnership also ensured that those logging on from all around the country knew about the organization’s voter guide, compiling the various French candidates’ stances on LGBTQ issues.

So, after the first round and its historic rejection of the country’s two biggest political parties, the natural next question was: who will Grindr users be voting for in the runoff? Well, we asked and they answered. Or at least 2,814 did.

About twice as many gay, bi, and trans respondents said they would be voting for Macron, but Le Pen got 32.6% of the votes in the informal poll.

Of course, this poll isn’t built on any kind of statistical model and isn’t even approaching the precise truth of this voter pool. But what is clear here is that gay, bi, and trans people are not uniformly backing Macron because of Le Pen’s explicit anti-LGBTQ rhetoric, and that’s noteworthy. Evidently at this moment in French history, many in the community are looking beyond issues that are clearly concerned with sexual orientation and gender identity as they cast their vote.

One thing this poll didn’t capture was those who will stay home this weekend, refusing to cast a vote for either candidate. Although the polling currently favors Macron, and almost all the political parties who did not make the runoff are standing firm against Le Pen, those abstentions could play a key role in the ultimate results.

The Fine Print

This survey was fielded in French between Wednesday, April 26 and Sunday, April 30, 2017. Respondents were recruited by way of an in-app message sent to Grindr users logging in from within a 280-mile radius of the French mainland. All percentages in this article are rounded to the nearest tenth.

Jack Harrison-Quintana (@jchq59) is the Director of Grindr For Equality and was recently named one of Fast Company’s Most Creative People in Business and Foreign Policy’s Top Global Thinkers.

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