Exit polls from CNN and the Washington Post report that 4 percent of the overall electorate self-identified as gay, lesbian or bisexual, down from 5 percent in 1996, (the Washington Blade has a good wrap up). CNN says Kerry garnered 77 percent of the gay vote; compared with the 70 percent that went to Gore four years ago (the 2000 figure is from an ABC poll). But hold on to your horses: Bush got 23 percent of gay votes this time, says CNN - the same percentage as four years ago. The Washington Post comes close to the same conclusion, putting the gay vote breakdown at 78 percent Kerry, 21 percent Bush and 2 percent Nader. And the polls were skewing toward Kerry!
Very quick analysis: gay culture is so dominated by liberal-left (and left-left) activists and media that we forget that many gay folks are just folks, going to work, running small businesses, attending church and worrying about security, taxes and crime. They don't view Bush with the paranoid vision of gay activists.
I can also relate that among a good quarter of gay folks there is outright hostility toward a dominant gay left that does not speak on their behalf, though it claims to. As for the Log Cabin Republicans, their "non-endorsement" of Bush didn't seem to have much effect on the gay GOP electorate, either.
[Update: In 2000,
Bush actually received about 25% of the gay vote according to exit
polls. If we take the 21% gay vote figure that the Washington Post
reports Bush received this year, the falloff is 4% -- within the
margin of error.]