First openly gay printial ndidate lnch ‘Tth Squad 2020’ mpaign | The Hill

Contents:

• MEET PETE BUTTIGIEG: A GAY MAYOR, AFGHAN WAR VET AND LENNIAL WHO'S NNG FOR PRINT
• IS AMERI READY TO ELECT A GAY PRINT?
• ALMOST 70 PERCENT OF AMERINS OK WH GAY PRINTIAL NDIDATE, POLL FDS
• THE LEGACY OF THE FIRST OPENLY GAY PRINTIAL NDIDATE
• FIRST OPENLY GAY PRINTIAL NDIDATE LNCH ‘TTH SQUAD 2020’ MPAIGN
• MEET PETE BUTTIGIEG, THE YOUNG, GAY VETERAN AND MIDWT MAYOR WHO WANTS TO TAKE ON TMP 2020
• FIRST OPENLY GAY US PRINTIAL CANDIDATE?
• PETE BUTTIGIEG SAYS "'S ALMOST CERTA" HE WOULDN'T BE FIRST GAY 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'
• TMP REVEALS HE WOULD VOTE FOR A GAY PRINTIAL NDIDATE
• GAY, SGLE, DIVORCED, REMARRIED: DEMOCRATIC NDIDAT REFLECT THE CHANGG AMERIN FAY

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. Pete Buttigieg, the first openly gay U. On the mpaign trail, he speaks of beg gay terms of fay valu, emphasizg he is a lovg, mted same-sex marriage, and what his ndidacy says about cln and equaly Ameri today.

IS AMERI READY TO ELECT A GAY PRINT?

WATCH: Is Ameri Ready to Elect a Gay Print? “Pete’s succs so far this mpaign reprents an evolutn Amerin polics, upendg tradnal notns of electabily and provg that Ameri is ready to elect s first openly gay print, ” Ellt Imse, munitn director at the LGBTQ Victory Fund, said. LGBTQ is an clive signatn for lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr and other sexual orientatns.

The same poll showed 40% of Ain Amerin rponnts sayg they are reluctant to vote for a gay man.

ALMOST 70 PERCENT OF AMERINS OK WH GAY PRINTIAL NDIDATE, POLL FDS

“If Ain Amerins were sort of disproportnately cled to not vote for somebody who is gay, you would thk that would have shown up there as well, ” said David Barker, director of the Center for Congrsnal and Printial Studi at Amerin Universy Washgton. Man, ” wh Buttigieg’s same-sex marriage, and said Amerins are “still not ready to elect a gay guy kissg his hband on the bate stage [as] print.

“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. 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.

THE LEGACY OF THE FIRST OPENLY GAY PRINTIAL NDIDATE

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.

FIRST OPENLY GAY PRINTIAL NDIDATE LNCH ‘TTH SQUAD 2020’ MPAIGN

“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.

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

Buttigieg’s brother--law has said he don’t “support the gay liftyle. ” “We knew to ask if he expected any tensn at the Thanksgivg table om some of his ls gay-iendly -laws, ” Bixby, who was there, says.

It’s not about, ‘Oh, Pete is gay and I’m gay, so I empathize wh him. ’ It’s, ‘Pete is gay and I’m gay, so I know that a qutn about this specific experience is gog to produce an tertg or illumatg answer. Other gay reporters have taken siar l of quiry wh Buttigieg.

FIRST OPENLY GAY US PRINTIAL CANDIDATE?

On the b Frankl, New Hampshire, Del Aguila asked Buttigieg whether he had any gay mentors. It was a ary veteran and person of fah “who jt let me know ’s OK to be a Christian veteran gay Amerin, but I did not grow up wh a lot of out gay people my life, ” he rpond.

“It’s helped facilate really ep, thoughtful nversatns about what was like to be the closet up until his 30s, what was like g out, how affected him as a young man, how affects him today on the mpaign, ” Smh says of the fact that gay reporters are verg the mpaign. As a black and gay journalist, the Post’s Capehart has had an even more sgular wdow to Buttigieg’s mpaign, particularly as he has stggled to w over black voters.

PETE BUTTIGIEG SAYS "'S ALMOST CERTA" HE WOULDN'T BE FIRST GAY PRINT

In a November 2019 lumn headled “The ugly lie about black voters and Pete Buttigieg, ” Capehart tackled the stereotype that Ain Amerins stat such as South Carola are homophobic.

“Black voters don’t own homophobia and they are not monolhic, ” Capehart wrote.

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'

“You are verg somethg that is unprecented, which is a major openly gay printial ndidate havg to ntend wh protters shoutg vulgari about their sexualy at them durg a mpaign event, ” says Lerman, who documented the episo for NBC News. “The fact of the matter is that gay rights issu, same-sex marriage, other issu like that, are still matters of public ntroversy our untry, ” says Lerman, who pched his edors on verg Buttigieg around his lnch April after Buttigieg had raised $7 ln the first fundraisg quarter.

Mark Meier, a gay Washgton-based munitns profsnal who lnched the Draft Pete movement on social media 2018 but who now supports Sen. “Early on, straight embeds were aaid of beg lled homophobic and gay embeds, many of whom look like Pete, gave him overwhelmgly glowg attentn. But the gay reporters verg Buttigieg have qutned the ndidate wh tough verage.

Sam Sanrs, the gay host of NPR’s It’s Been a Mute who was an NPR embed on Sen. “Oh, let the four new embeds who are gay fix , ” Sam Sanrs says.

TMP REVEALS HE WOULD VOTE FOR A GAY PRINTIAL NDIDATE

Buttigieg himself has exprsed tratn wh some of the gay outlets that have vered his mpaign.

“That’s why I n’t even read the LGBT media anymore, bee ’s all, ‘He’s too gay, ’ ‘Not gay enough, ’ ‘Wrong kd of gay. Bee I do have kd of a shared experience wh him as a gay man, ” Johnson tells me. When he nsirs the fight wh the gay muny over whether Buttigieg is gay enough, Capehart se echo of 2008.

It wasn’t only their shared inty as gay whe men but also Buttigieg’s return to his Midwtern hometown after attendg llege. “Home, for me as a gay person, was a place that I had succsfully ped, ” Bixby says.

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

“I don’t thk I got assigned to ver him jt like, ‘Stt, you’re the only gay on the polics team, so you get him.