University of Otago gender studies and politics master's degree student Joshua James is appealing for men in Dunedin to contribute to his study, looking at how gay men vote and their motivations for choosing particular political parties.
For his work, he was using a combination of focus groups and interviews, as well as data from a previous New Zealand election study looking at 3500 people.
He had been putting the word out on social media in Dunedin, Wellington and Auckland, and when it came to seeking interview subjects, he was surprised to find most of the people who wanted to help him were older.
``I think often, they have perhaps more of a commitment to the queer community, and often they have more free time.''
Younger people also had not ``experienced the historic state-sponsored oppression'' older ones had, he said.
``They might not be as aware.''
In Europe, the evidence showed gay men were starting to vote for alt-Right parties, something which could be partly attributed to a fear of Muslim immigrants and Islam challenging secular values.
However the men were left in a double-bind, because most far-Right parties were also opposed to same-sex marriage.
The opposite was true in the United States, where gay men supported Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump, which could be partly due to the historical links the Democrat party had with the queer community.
Despite being based in Dunedin, he had received a low number of responses in Dunedin compared to the other centres, and he thought the ``lad culture'' among Otago students possibly impeded him from finding interview subjects.
He was interested in speaking to more men from the city, and also to men in rural communities, if they wanted to contribute, so he had a wider mixture of voices.
• People interested in contributing can email: joshua.james@otago.ac.nz
