Meet Pete Buttigieg: A gay mayor, Afghan War vet and lennial who's nng for print

Contents:

• MEET PETE BUTTIGIEG: A GAY MAYOR, AFGHAN WAR VET AND LENNIAL WHO'S NNG FOR PRINT
• A MARRIED GAY MAN IS NNG FOR PRINT. THAT’S A BIG AL.
• MEET PETE BUTTIGIEG, THE YOUNG, GAY VETERAN AND MIDWT MAYOR WHO WANTS TO TAKE ON TMP 2020
• GAY, SGLE, DIVORCED, REMARRIED: DEMOCRATIC NDIDAT REFLECT THE CHANGG AMERIN FAY
• BUTTIGIEG, THE FIRST OPENLY GAY DEMOCRATIC PRINTIAL NDIDATE, WAS HATED BY THE LEFT. WHY?
• PETE BUTTIGIEG SAYS GAY PRINTS HAVE ALREADY BEEN ELECTED BUT DON'T KNOW WHICH ON: 'MY GAYDAR DON'T EVEN WORK THAT WELL THE PRENT'

MEET PETE BUTTIGIEG: A GAY MAYOR, AFGHAN WAR VET AND LENNIAL WHO'S NNG FOR PRINT

Pete Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, beme the first openly gay ndidate the 2020 printial race Wednday, jog an already crowd field of Democratic hopefuls. “I’m om the Midwt, so the issu of makg sure that we have a posive way forward for workers and fai the dtrial Midwt — this is not theoretil for me, ’s my home, ” Buttigieg Buttigieg were to overe the long odds and bee the Democratic nomee for print, he would be the first openly gay nomee and the first veteran of the Afghanistan War, where he served a tour as a Naval Rerve officer. “I was well to adulthood before I was prepared to acknowledge the simple fact that I am gay, ” Buttigieg wrote at the time.

Should Buttigieg w his long-shot bid for the Democratic nomatn, he will bee the first nomee of a major polil party who publicly intifi as gay. That a gay married man is nng a ser mpaign for print, however, is a big al, and we shouldn’t let the improbabily of his ndidacy stop om acknowledgg this moment. Gay marriage was legal only two stat January 2009 – Massachetts and Connecticut.

A MARRIED GAY MAN IS NNG FOR PRINT. THAT’S A BIG AL.

Barack Obama beme Print, and although he was supportive of expandg legal rights for the LGBT muny and gay upl, he was on the rerd durg his mpaign as beg opposed to same-sex marriage. I am not favor of gay marriage, ” Obama told MTV News durg the 2008 mpaign. In 2010, Print Obama signed to law the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell Repeal Act, endg a policy enacted 1993 that prevent gay men and lbians om servg openly the ary.

Three years later, the Supreme Court led that stat nnot ban same-sex marriage, makg legal natnwi for gay and lbian upl to marry. And durg this time, ndidat who publicly intify as gay, bisexual and transgenr have broken barriers wh their ws.

In 2012, Wisns’s Tammy Baldw beme the first gay person elected to the US Senate (she was re-elected 2018). In last year’s midterm electns, Colorado’s Jared Polis beme the first gay man the US to be elected ernor, Kyrsten Sema, who is bisexual, won a US Senate seat Arizona, and Sharice Davids, a lbian, won her US Hoe race Kansas. All of this is to say, que simply, that a relatively brief perd of time, the polics surroundg gay marriage and LGBT equaly shifted dramatilly.

MEET PETE BUTTIGIEG, THE YOUNG, GAY VETERAN AND MIDWT MAYOR WHO WANTS TO TAKE ON TMP 2020

For a lol stunt stgglg wh her sexualy, might be helpful for an openly gay mayor to send the msage that her muny will always have a place for her.

And for a nservative rint om a different generatn, whose unease wh social change is partly rooted the imprsn that he don’t know anyone gay, perhaps a faiar face n be a remr that we’re all this together as a muny. But one thg is for sure: Havg a gay ndidate – or nomee, or print – is no longer such a farfetched ia. The policy was a promise reached when many members of Congrs, cludg some Democrats, objected to Print Bill Clton's plan to pletely lift the total ban on ary service by lbian, gay, and bisexual people.

Then there was his famo pronouncement of has never fully explaed how he went om votg for DOMA to endorsg marriage equaly, but once he me to the latter posn, his support has been strong and a recent terview for The Advote's upg polics issue, Bin remembers beg at a 2012 mpaign event at the home of a gay uple, entertament executive Michael Lombardo and archect Sonny Ward, and seeg the love between them and their children. In 1973, an arsonist Los Angel burned the Metropolan Communy Church headquarters to the ground, and another arsonist killed 32 people at a gay bar New Orleans. The Supreme Court upheld Florida's sodomy law, Maryland beme the first state to ban same-sex marriage, and New York Cy rejected a gay rights ordance.

GAY, SGLE, DIVORCED, REMARRIED: DEMOCRATIC NDIDAT REFLECT THE CHANGG AMERIN FAY

"That's why most of his former rivals, cludg Bernie Sanrs and former South Bend., Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg -- the first out gay printial ndidate to appear a major-party bate -- have endorsed him. ""We have an opportuny now, unlike any time sce I've been volved wh public life, which has been the bulk of my life, to actually make some ser and signifint systemic chang terms of allowg people to work wh digny and be treated wh digny and paid cently as well as gog after stutnal racism, alg wh homophobia, " he sounds like a nomee to be enthiastic about. Buttigieg is a Rhos Scholar and Afghanistan War veteran who n boast of beg the untry's youngt mayor of a cy of South Bend's size when he was elected 2011 at age if he ws the Democratic nomatn, Buttigieg would be the first openly gay printial ndidate nomated by a major party.

And an openly gay man has never e close to wng a U. ” Now, many historians say Buchanan was most likely gay and he's been regard more warmly for 's a change Buttigieg pecially is aware of — even though he said his "gaydar" isn't powerful enough to terme Buchanan's sexualy.

“I don’t thk Manchter has a gay bar, ” he rells sayg. Judd, CNN’s vio producer verg Pete Buttigieg, would later tell me Manchter has at least two gay bars.

BUTTIGIEG, THE FIRST OPENLY GAY DEMOCRATIC PRINTIAL NDIDATE, WAS HATED BY THE LEFT. WHY?

Among the roughly dozen reporters on the b that day, five were gay—part of a terie of LGBTQ journalists verg the first mastream openly gay printial ndidate. A number of gay natnal rrponnts have foced on Buttigieg, too, a list that clus Josh Lerman, an NBC News natnal polil reporter; Chris Johnson of the Washgton Bla; Jeremy Peters of the New York Tim, and the Washgton Post’s Chelsea Jan and opn wrer Jonathan Capehart.

For others, ’s tentnal: They put their hands up, fascated by the chance to ver the first openly gay top tier printial ndidate.

Over the past 12 months, om New Hampshire to Iowa, the gay reporters on the Buttigieg beat have wnsed and reported on anti-gay hecklg at stops D Mo, Iowa, and Marshalltown, Iowa. They have argued among themselv about how their lleagu the media have documented Buttigieg’s gayns. ” Smh relled once llg a work about a chyron that read somethg like: “Gay mayor ns for print.

PETE BUTTIGIEG SAYS GAY PRINTS HAVE ALREADY BEEN ELECTED BUT DON'T KNOW WHICH ON: 'MY GAYDAR DON'T EVEN WORK THAT WELL THE PRENT'

“Havg so many LGBTQ reporters verg this mpaign has helped facilate a more thoughtful and nuanced nversatn about what means to be gay 2020. In November, on a three-day b tour of Iowa, I asked Buttigieg what meant to him that the majory of reporters routely verg him were also gay. Durg the evengs, he tri to fd a gay bar.

He has vised gay bars, he timat, maybe 20 ci, flyover untry plac such as South Bend, Ind., and El Paso, Texas. “I’m always cur to see what a gay voter some of the plac that aren’t the gay mecs is talkg about. Buttigieg’s brother--law has said he don’t “support the gay liftyle.