Lobbying Friends or Foes: Target Choice of LGBTQ+ Interest Groups when Lobbying for Policy Change?

Interest group literature has highlighted how interest groups strategically target specific politicians and/or policymakers when lobbying public policies. These studies mainly focus on political settings where interest group involvement is accepted or appreciated. Yet, in LGBTQ+ politics this acceptance is not self-evident. Due to the contentious nature of morality politics, politicians and policymakers might not be open towards interest groups that fundamentally challenge their views on LGBTQ+ equality. Current literature highlights how this political hostility takes place, but lacks a thorough understanding on how different LGBTQ+ interest groups strategize in such contexts, specifically how their strategic choices are informed by politicians and policymakers openness towards them. To this end, this paper seeks to answer the research question ‘To what extent does hostility towards LGBTQ+ equality affect the target choice of LGBTQ+ interest groups?’ Using original survey data conducted with 70 European LGBTQ+ organizations, this paper models the effects of political hostility and openness towards LGBTQ+ interests on the target choice of the interest groups. It discusses both what national actors LGBTQ+ interest groups target (such as politicians from majority/minority parties, ministers, civil servants, national courts) but also EU actors (such as European Commissioners, DGs, The European Council, members of European Parliament, and EU courts). Moreover, by collecting data on actors’ stances towards LGBTQ+ equality, I also analyse whether LGBTQ+ interest groups lobby friends or foes.