Poll: Do you think there will be more openly gay prime minsters and presidents in the next 20 years

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Vault101

I'm in your mind fuzz
Sep 26, 2010
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shootthebandit said:
I personally dont think it matters. A politicians sexuality is their own business and noone elses

More importantly when will people stop caring if people are straight or gay. It really doesnt make one iota of difference if you like men or women. The only instance where it would ever matter would be if I was trying to get with a girl who was a lesbian and even then it would only stop an awkward moment.
maybe in the future the assumption will no longer be "straight until proven otherwise" but "whatever" I think people are a little more flexible than we may think

[quote/]People need to stop identifying themselves by their sexuality and yes straight people do this more than gay people[/quote]

years ago (on here no less) there was the typical "I don't have a problem with gays as long as they don't act so [i/]gay[/i]" and "shoving their sexualtiy down your throat"

the funny thing is if there is any demographic that "shoves their sexuality down peoples throat" its Hetero men (generally speaking of coarse)
 

legend of duty

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I dont know for the rest of the world, but we (U.S.) really need to work on electing representatives that reflect the demographics of our own nation. Just for example, right now there are more lawyers in congress than any other profession. Considering lawyers make up only 1 percent of the population this grossly over represents that sector.
 

DEAD34345

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It'll probably get better and better over time, but sadly I doubt it'll become a common thing any time soon. Politicians are basically selected by committee to be as non-offensive as possible. A gay prime minister is going to immediately lose the votes of any homophobes, but a straight prime minister isn't going to lose any votes whatsoever. All other things equal, having a straight person represent your party is likely to be more successful.
 

Win32error

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Considering the fact that gays have become more and more accepted the last decades, probably yes. It's one of those progressive trends that just keeps going in western society. Segregation (not just by race, but religion, gender, etc.) has rapidly decreased since WW2, especially in western countries, and every generation seems to be more tolerant (or more individualistic, with tolerance as a result, that's another discussion) than the one that came before it. Only now do world leaders open up about it, and most of them have still grown up hiding it. A few years ago, the minister of finance in my country came out as gay, and even then there were some voices in his own party that shouted betrayal and called him a traitor (the party he belongs to is christian, but it's lost almost all religious influence the last 2-3 decades), asking for him to resign immediately. I'd say that the amount of gay world leaders will probably increase for at least the next two generations, as the ones that grow up without any prejudice will be the only ones with a good representation of gay people in places of power (which i expect to be equal in percentage as heterosexuals).

One thing to note is that the actual demographic facts about gay people are...not very reliable in most cases. I'm pretty sure that in my country it's estimated to be "somewhere between 5 and 10%", but even that might still change. A lot of countries are more repressive of gays than the one I live in, and googling gives me figures of something like 3% or less, depending on the country. With laws and general acceptance regarding gays rapidly changing, so do these figures, which makes any prediction difficult. My personal prediction regarding the amount of homosexual (and other non-heterosexuals) leaders for the coming 20-50 year, SHOULD NOTHING WEIRD HAPPEN (which might) is: Probably more.

Oh, and one more thing. I'm not sure how reliable this is, but I believe that there are more gay men than women, and google seems to back me up on this (again, unreliable data that may change in the coming years) This means that if we will see more women at the top, we might see slightly less gay people in those positions. Of course, this means that gay men should suppress women in order to get more influence up top, which would totally not be wrong or anything. If you only look at the leaders of each country, then you are of course looking at a small group, and luck/coincidence could definitely have drastic influence on the data. Especially when you consider that there are countries where a gay/female leader is not likely to happen anywhere in this century.
 

Genocidicles

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Sep 13, 2012
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It's a possibility.

They'd lose a lot of homophobe's votes, but I think they'd gain more from pro-gay people voting for them just because the candidate was gay (like some people only voting for Obama because he was Black) and from people voting for them because they don't want to seem homophobic.
 

shootthebandit

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Vault101 said:
shootthebandit said:
I personally dont think it matters. A politicians sexuality is their own business and noone elses

More importantly when will people stop caring if people are straight or gay. It really doesnt make one iota of difference if you like men or women. The only instance where it would ever matter would be if I was trying to get with a girl who was a lesbian and even then it would only stop an awkward moment.
maybe in the future the assumption will no longer be "straight until proven otherwise" but "whatever" I think people are a little more flexible than we may think

[quote/]People need to stop identifying themselves by their sexuality and yes straight people do this more than gay people
years ago (on here no less) there was the typical "I don't have a problem with gays as long as they don't act so [i/]gay[/i]" and "shoving their sexualtiy down your throat"

the funny thing is if there is any demographic that "shoves their sexuality down peoples throat" its Hetero men (generally speaking of coarse)[/quote]

I think the root cause goes a little deeper. People need to have the "whatever" attitude to most things. I personally dont care what anyone does in their private life so long as it stays private (except obvious examples like joseph fritzl etc). So what if your gay just stop telling me. So what if you smoke weed noone cares

It also boils down to the fact that society makes a huge deal out of sexuality be it hetero or homo and it tries to make sex almost a public thing when its inherently personal. You only need to open a tabloid newspaper to see some scandal about so and so sleeping with joe bloggs. Where as mainland Europe has a much more relax attitude and they also have a much more open gsy community

Personally I just dont care. Maybe its because im confortable with myself or maybe its that I dont care about some elses private life that has no impact on my own
 

Vault101

I'm in your mind fuzz
Sep 26, 2010
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shootthebandit said:
Vault101 said:
shootthebandit said:
I personally dont think it matters. A politicians sexuality is their own business and noone elses

More importantly when will people stop caring if people are straight or gay. It really doesnt make one iota of difference if you like men or women. The only instance where it would ever matter would be if I was trying to get with a girl who was a lesbian and even then it would only stop an awkward moment.
maybe in the future the assumption will no longer be "straight until proven otherwise" but "whatever" I think people are a little more flexible than we may think

[quote/]People need to stop identifying themselves by their sexuality and yes straight people do this more than gay people
years ago (on here no less) there was the typical "I don't have a problem with gays as long as they don't act so [i/]gay[/i]" and "shoving their sexualtiy down your throat"

the funny thing is if there is any demographic that "shoves their sexuality down peoples throat" its Hetero men (generally speaking of coarse)
I think the root cause goes a little deeper. People need to have the "whatever" attitude to most things. I personally dont care what anyone does in their private life so long as it stays private (except obvious examples like joseph fritzl etc). So what if your gay just stop telling me. So what if you smoke weed noone cares

It also boils down to the fact that society makes a huge deal out of sexuality be it hetero or homo and it tries to make sex almost a public thing when its inherently personal. You only need to open a tabloid newspaper to see some scandal about so and so sleeping with joe bloggs. Where as mainland Europe has a much more relax attitude and they also have a much more open gsy community

Personally I just dont care. Maybe its because im confortable with myself or maybe its that I dont care about some elses private life that has no impact on my own[/quote]

I think the problem with homosexuality as opposed to reeeeeaaally far out fetishes (like pretend I'm a carrot and your cooking me for dinner...ohh yeah) is that no matter how you look at it it spills into real life, unless you stick yourself firmly in the closet it will come up at some Pinot, at some point a co worker or acquaintance may find out you have a girlfriend/boyfriend and therefore they will know you "deviate" and some will make a big deal out if that, when same sex sex is fairly tame when you think about it

Meriatressia said:
Probabely not. If they've any sense they'll do what the straight leaders do and STFU about their private lives.
No one gives a crap about their private lives.
Most politicians with any sense only mention their wives husbands, children, etc, when they have to.
It's not about the partners, etc, it's about the leaders.

If they're one of those extremely irritating attention seekers who round shouting about how they're lesbian, gay, bisexual, etc, look at me, ar'nt I a precious ickel snowflake, than they won't last more than 5 minutes.
And will be grindingly annoying.
They'll have pissed off even the most tolerant of people after a minute. Like all of the obnoxiously GLBT people do.
They'll be kicked out of their own parties, never mind get ripped up by the media.

It may be all about the image to a degree, but a leaders got to have policies and ability.
Even if they're corrupt, they've got to have the brains to stay in power.
People dont elect people without some ability to leader, unless it's Berlesconi levels of corruption, or something.

Given what twatbaskets the obnoxious LGBT people are, I don't want to see any more of them in power.
The straight ones at least have the sense to do what most straight people do, and not act like their sexuality makes them a precious ickle snowflake and all must love them.
Damn obnoxious straight guys, bringing their sex into everything from car adds to fantasy RPG's and going in and on about who they'd like to fuck and who they find hot

Seriously though please give me some examples of the terrible gay people being annoying
 

Eamar

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Feb 22, 2012
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In the Western world? Sure. There have already been a few, and I'm don't really see attitudes towards LGBT people regressing in the next couple of decades. But as others have said, LGBT people are a really small proportion of the overall population, so all things being equal it's never going to be a particularly common occurrence.

What I'm much more concerned about (in the UK specifically) is greater representation of women in politics. We make up 50% of the population, but we've only had one female Prime Minister, and that was decades ago. That's just embarrassing.
 

Queen Michael

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Jun 9, 2009
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Sure. I'm Swedish, and I expect us to get a gay minister pretty darn soon. Gay prime minister? Hm... We've never had a woman even, so I can't say for sure.
 

Queen Michael

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Eamar said:
In the Western world? Sure. There have already been a few, and I'm don't really see attitudes towards LGBT people regressing in the next couple of decades. But as others have said, LGBT people are a really small proportion of the overall population, so all things being equal it's never going to be a particularly common occurrence.

What I'm much more concerned about (in the UK specifically) is greater representation of women in politics. We make up 50% of the population, but we've only had one female Prime Minister, and that was decades ago. That's just embarrassing.
And the minister in question was Margaret Thatcher, which has to be even more embarrassing.
 

MeChaNiZ3D

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I should hope we see them with about the same regularity as you see openly gay people on the street as a percentage of all people you see, because it really shouldn't have any impact on voting. It does, of course, and as cultural awakenings are happening around the world I would expect some gay prime ministers/presidents to be elected on the back of their related social policies. But I think there'll always be more homophobia than irrational reasons not to vote for heterosexuals - or at least for the next 20 years.
 

Redlin5_v1legacy

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20 years? Well, we haven't had a female Prime Minister here in Canada who has lasted over a year yet. It's possible I suppose but there was a lot of homophobia that I noticed growing up in my town. Far more homophobia than openness about homosexuality. I'm cynical about my generation's willingness to accept a homosexual Prime Minister to say the least...
 

J Tyran

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Jamieson 90 said:
Here's a question. Will the UK get a black/Asian/minority Prime Minister before they get an overtly gay one?
I think we already did one better, we have an Indian born lifetime peer. In some ways culturally a none white person getting into the House of Lords, amongst what is traditionally the former domain of the aristocratic politicians is a bigger deal than someone being a PM.
 

Eclectic Dreck

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I wouldn't expect it to be particularly common, honestly. There are two basic reasons the first of which is a simple numbers game: there are far fewer gay people out there than straight and unless something about high office draws a disproportionate population even the most egalitarian society will produce a leading official rarely. The second is that the taboos against that lifestyle, while fading, will take a very long time to go away entirely. This means it is somewhat less likely, in general, that any particular person will vote for the supposed openly gay candidate which further exacerbates the first reason.
 

Flatfrog

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Jamieson 90 said:
Here's a question. Will the UK get a black/Asian/minority Prime Minister before they get an overtly gay one?
If I had to make a bet, I'd say we'll get a gay PM before an ethnic minority one. Not so much because of racism per se but because of social demographics. In this country there are relatively few black people in the political classes and it's pretty rare for one to make it very far in politics. Obviously that's a bad thing but I don't see it changing as fast as acceptance of homosexuality, which pretty much crosses class boundaries (if anything, it's probably *more* prevalent in upper-middle-class circles)

Having said that, I think very few people would have expected us to get a female prime minister before the end of the 20th Century, and women are still hugely underrepresented in parliament, so I guess it only ever takes one person to break the mould.

Captcha: Well done. Yes, indeed. Well done Maggie.
 

Combustion Kevin

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In the netherlands, sure, we have openly gay ministers already, just have to wait for one of em to be voted into prime minister.
 

rutger5000

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Oct 19, 2010
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Who the hell cares? How is the sexual orientation of a politician in any way relevant? (Except perhaps when dealing with the Middle east)