From rainbow flags to red flags: How attitudes toward gender equality and LGBTIQ+ shape voting behavior

Post-industrial societies increasingly face conflicting forces that simultaneously advance and resist gender equality. While policy efforts have advanced women’s and LGBTIQ+ rights, a reactionary discourse has gained traction in Europe, often framed as a “war on gender ideology”. While research has extensively explored the role of sexism in voting behavior, comparatively less attention has been paid to attitudes toward LGBTIQ+. Notably, it remains unclear how social groups combine support for women and LGBTIQ+ rights and how they translate into voting behavior. To address this gap, this study poses two key questions: (1) To what extent do attitudes toward women and LGBTIQ+ rights differ in their degree of polarization? (2) How do these attitudes shape voting behavior, and are there discernible differences in their influence? Using original survey data from ten European countries, this paper demonstrates that LGBTIQ+ rights are significantly more contested than gender equality. Moreover, opposition to gender equality and LGBTIQ+ rights is a strong and consistent driver of far-right support, whereas progressive views mainly benefit the Greens but translate into partisan loyalty less directly and consistently. As such, this study enhances the literature theoretically and empirically by linking attitudes on the two issues to political preferences in contemporary democracies.