Candidates are courting gay, lesbian vote in Salt Lake City

The ad leads off listing endorsements by Sen. Scott McCoy and Rep. Jackie Biskupski, both D-Salt Lake, and both openly gay members of the Legislature. It also pictures Becker with them and with Rep. Chris Johnson, D-Salt Lake, the only other openly gay legislator. The ad shows Becker with a sign with rainbow colors — another symbol of gay and lesbian support — at a local gay pride event.

Becker's ad does not say the candidate supports gay issues (although on his Web site, he does), nor does it identify the three lawmakers as gay public servants. Thus, a voter not familiar with gay issues may not get a gay-support message from the ad, while gay city dwellers probably will see a gay-support message.

Becker denies any covert coding in the spot. "That never occurred to me. We just wanted to show a broad range of support." Former Utah first lady Norma Matheson is also named in the spot, and Becker said there was no subliminal intent in showing her, either.

On their Web sites, both Wilson and Becker outline aggressive programs to protect all citizens' human rights, but with special emphasis on the rights of gay and lesbian Salt Lakers. Wilson writes on her site: "I am proud to stand behind the GLBT community as an ally and a friend."

Former city councilman Christensen, a political independent, posts on his Web site a newspaper story quoting him saying that Salt Lake City businesses should be required by ordinance to protect gay rights by adopting nondiscrimination policies.

GOP mayoral candidate Dave Buhler didn't give money to some of those same groups and doesn't mention GLBT issues on his Web site — but he did attend a Equality Utah/Planned Parenthood candidate forum, where he voiced moderate support for some gay issues, such as flying a gay pride flag at City Hall during gay pride events.

The gay community

No one knows exactly how large the gay vote is in the city, or the vote by heterosexuals who actively support gay and lesbian issues.

But the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey in 2000 estimated that Salt Lake City had 968 homes headed by gay couples (or 1,936 people). Of course, that doesn't count any gays who were not then in a live-in situation, or any same-sex couples who decided not to list themselves as such on the official census records.

But Thompson says thousands of gays living in the city is significant because in 2003 only 25,000 Salt Lakers voted in the mayoral primary and just over 40,000 voted in the final. That means gays are likely a significant number of those who do vote. If most of those gays voted, they would have made up 8 percent of the primary voters and 5 percent of the final election voters.