How do marginalized minority groups gain power in a republic that is designed in large part to inhibit major political change? In his important and ambitious new book, Donald P. Haider-Markel examines the conditions under which openly lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) candidates run for office and win and whether increased descriptive representation, the election of more openly gay and lesbian candidates to office, increases their substantive representation.
Out and Running reflects the compilation of an impressive array of data, ranging from six case studies documenting how gay legislators work in a variety of states to the creation of massive data sets that identify LGBT candidates and legislators in every state legislature over roughly a 15-year period (1992–2007). Haider-Markel also marshals public opinion data in order to assess the public's receptivity to LGBT candidates. By examining public opinions, campaigns, and behavior in the state legislatures using quantitative analyses and case studies, he brings tremendous leverage to evaluate LGBT representation in each of the different aspects of the democratic process (i.e., the people, campaigns and elections, the legislature). Moreover, he also examines the extent to which policy backlash results from the increased number of gays and lesbians elected.
Theoretically, the book is grounded in the history of the gay politics movement, which provides a nexus for thinking of gay rights in the context of studies that examine how other minority groups have gained power. Specifically, Haider-Markel lays the groundwork for assessing the policy implications of descriptive representation as a theme that runs throughout the book. By illustrating how descriptive representation has led to enhanced substantive representation at the local and state levels, his work contributes not just to our understanding of the nuances concerning how and when gays get elected and pass policy but to the broader literature on descriptive representation, which speaks to the fundamental democratic value of equality and helps us to better understand how and when disadvantaged minority groups can begin to obtain power. From this perspective, each of the chapters helps us to understand how different aspects of the democratic process work to either enhance or inhibit the attitudes, candidates, and policies that directly affect gays and lesbians.
As a result, the book speaks to both elections and policymaking. With respect to elections, Haider-Markel convincingly demonstrates that LGBT candidates are no less likely to win elections and, among Democratic candidates, they actually poll a little better than do their non-LGBT peers. This finding is important because LGBT candidates face an uphill climb—roughly 25% of Americans are unwilling to vote for an openly gay candidate. Despite this success, and the roughly proportional representation of LGBT constituents in several of the states he examines, these results suggest that LGBT candidates are likely to remain underrepresented, in large part because they appear to be highly strategic in their choice of where and when they run. LGBT candidates are more likely to run in Democratic districts and are much more likely to be high-quality candidates, two factors that seem to explain much of their high levels of success. The implicit flip side is that they are less likely to run or win in Republican districts.
Also important is the large and consistent finding that the election of increased numbers of LGBT candidates leads to enhanced substantive representation, both through an increase in the number of bills proposed and in the increased likelihood that pro-gay rights legislation, especially that which bans discrimination, passes. LGBT members' influence takes more subtle forms as well, as the author's case studies document instances in which members from states where gay rights are unpopular worked behind the scenes to prevent adverse legislation from passing. In other cases, LGBT members built personal relationships that provided some of those who might have opposed gay rights a deeper understanding of the bill's implications.
These findings are especially important because while Haider-Markel shows that research on descriptive representation at the state and local level finds strong benefits accruing to minority groups that are able to elect members of their group to office (as Christan Grose shows in his 2011 study of black legislators, Congress in Black and White: Race and Representation in Washington and at Home), the evidence at the federal level is much more mixed. This is especially so on the question of whether enhanced descriptive representation leads to increased responsiveness on roll-call votes.
One concern is that policy success may evoke a backlash. In the case of LGBT politics, those opposed to gay rights, especially religious conservatives, may countermobilize in response to attempts to advance those rights. Backlash is especially relevant to the gay rights movement because, as the author astutely points out, the LGBT movement's rise is at least partly responsible for the rise of the Religious Right. Perhaps unsurprisingly, then, Haider-Markel's analysis suggests that the election of increased numbers of LGBT legislators coincides with a rise in the number of anti-gay bills.
The most important contribution of the book is that through its vast collection of data, it helps us better understand the contours of representation for gays and lesbians. It is hard to understate the effort required to identify the sexual orientation of state legislators from 50 states over a 15-year period and then to create data sets needed to evaluate the competing hypotheses explaining both electoral and legislative behavior. As a result, this work promises to provide a foundation for research for years to come.
Future research might build on this impressive work by accounting for agenda effects as well as trends in public opinion at the state level over time. Public opinion toward gay rights has become significantly more favorable over time. It is possible that as the public increasingly comes to support gay rights, the influence of descriptive representation may decrease. Indeed, in his analysis of backlash, Haider-Markel observes large differences in the effect of LGBT legislators on bill passage in different periods.
A second important consideration is that the pattern of advances in gay rights across states has a distinctly partisan flavor to it that goes beyond the notion of party competition included in most of the models presented. To take just one example, legislation advancing gay rights is almost never even considered in legislatures in which the Republican Party holds a majority. What congressional scholars refer to as “negative agenda control” thus provides gay rights opponents an easy way to prevent the passage of such bills. It is hard to tell, however, how much the results reported herein might be subject to such agenda-setting effects.
Out and Running provides important insights in helping to answer one of the most pressing questions political science faces today: How can marginalized minorities gain political representation? Haider-Markel shows that the descriptive representation of gays and lesbians has important substantive benefits. Of course, to the extent that one values political equality as an important democratic principle, the descriptive representation of marginalized groups has value regardless of its substantive effects. Showing that those benefits outweigh their potential costs adds weight to the argument. By helping us to better understand how gays and lesbians gain and exercise power, and the role that descriptive representation plays in fostering substantive representation, the author provides an important and timely contribution to the study of contemporary politics.
