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

Contents:

• IS AMERI READY TO ELECT A GAY PRINT?
• MEET PETE BUTTIGIEG: A GAY MAYOR, AFGHAN WAR VET AND LENNIAL WHO'S NNG FOR PRINT
• FIRST OPENLY GAY US PRINTIAL CANDIDATE?
• ALMOST 70 PERCENT OF AMERINS OK WH GAY PRINTIAL NDIDATE, POLL FDS
• OPN AMERI HAS ALREADY HAD A GAY PRINT
• WOULD BUTTIGIEG BE THE FIRST GAY PRINT? MAYBE NOT.
• AMERI'S ONLY BACHELOR PRINT MAY HAVE BEEN ITS ONLY GAY ONE
• MEET PETE BUTTIGIEG, THE YOUNG, GAY VETERAN AND MIDWT MAYOR WHO WANTS TO TAKE ON TMP 2020
• THERE WON’T BE A GAY PRINT 2021. SO WHAT DO BUTTIGIEG’S CAMPAIGN TELL US?
• A GAY PRINT? THE MAJORY OF AMERINS BELIEVE THE UNTRY ISN’T READY
• A MARRIED GAY MAN IS NNG FOR PRINT. THAT’S A BIG AL.

IS AMERI READY TO ELECT A GAY PRINT?

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.

MEET PETE BUTTIGIEG: A GAY MAYOR, AFGHAN WAR VET AND LENNIAL WHO'S NNG FOR 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. “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. 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. “I have the distctn of beg the first openly gay major party ndidate to n for print of the Uned Stat, ” he said, h om a walk about his neighborhood overlookg Lrel ’s a fact, even if ’s often fotten or 2012, the former Republin nsultant and rporate mpaign strategist waged a long-shot bid for the GOP nomatn.

FIRST OPENLY GAY US PRINTIAL CANDIDATE?

He had no illns he would prevail, much ls take up rincy the Whe ’s ma purpose was to participate at least one mpaign bate, to “send the msage to gay younger people and olr people and everyone between that you n do anythg you want life and [not] feel bad about yourself and... ”He appreciated the fact that Buttigieg, whenever troduced as the first openly gay ndidate for print, ma a pot of clarifyg the matter and givg Karger cred where cred was due. 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. For others, ’s tentnal: They put their hands up, fascated by the chance to ver the first openly gay top tier printial ndidate.

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

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.

“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.

He has vised gay bars, he timat, maybe 20 ci, flyover untry plac such as South Bend, Ind., and El Paso, Texas. ” “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.

OPN AMERI HAS ALREADY HAD A GAY PRINT

’ 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. 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. 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. “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.

WOULD BUTTIGIEG BE THE FIRST GAY PRINT? MAYBE NOT.

“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.

“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.

AMERI'S ONLY BACHELOR PRINT MAY HAVE BEEN ITS ONLY GAY ONE

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. “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. Bixby says this is one of the first electns which gay reporters are wrg about the tersectn of sexual inty and the mpaign trail.

It’s Gary Hart, ’s Bill Clton and ’s Print Tmp, but I feel like as a gay reporter, I might have an unrstandg of the relatnship to sexualy and sexual orientatn and what has to do wh other aspects of a person’s life. Havg other gay, queer, LGBTQ reporter iends who you see at ralli or bat or foms or on the b, mostly, mak a ltle more bearable to ver any ndidate, ” Bixby says.

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

’ That was maybe the first time I ever gave any thought to whether a gay person might ever n for print, ” Bixby says. Part of the fun of this has jt been ’s shaken up so many of my assumptns on what means to be gay Ameri, and what means to be a gay polician Ameri. She says that, over the years, gay rights activists have fought for the right to hold jobs, serve the ary, speak publicly about beg gay and marry someone of the same sex.

THERE WON’T BE A GAY PRINT 2021. SO WHAT DO BUTTIGIEG’S CAMPAIGN TELL US?

This marks a big shift sce 2006, when 53 percent said they'd be “very unfortable” or have “rervatns” about a gay or lbian Pete Buttigieg, of South Bend, Indiana, listens to a qutn durg a stop Raymond, New Hampshire, on Feb. But ’s also worth notg that one fact about him is rarely treated as a liabily: Buttigieg is openly gay and has been married to his hband, Chasten, sce last recently as 2006, when Buttigieg was 24, more than half of Amerins said they would be “very unfortable” (34 percent) or have “rervatns” (19 percent) about a gay or lbian person nng for year, jt five percent said they’d be enthiastic about an LGBT ndidate, acrdg to an NBC/Wall Street Journal poll.

A bed 68 percent are eher enthiastic (14 percent) or fortable (54 percent) wh a ndidate who is gay or ’s more, that jump isn’t jt due to creasg tolerance among the younger voters whom Buttigieg, a lennial, n claim to share of those younger than 35 who say they’re enthiastic or fortable wh a gay ndidate creased by 28 percentage pots between 2006 and now, jumpg om 47 percent to 75, while senrs are more likely to voice rervatns about gay ndidat, a majory (56 percent) now say they have no objectns. “If elected, you would be the first openly gay print of the Uned Stat, ” Stephen Colbert said to Pete Buttigieg after the mayor of South Bend, Ind., clared his ndidacy.

A GAY PRINT? THE MAJORY OF AMERINS BELIEVE THE UNTRY ISN’T READY

While the characterizatn of beg openly gay or “out” is relatively new, the fact is the Uned Stat has already had a gay print whose ntemporari knew : Jam Buchanan. Ined, the Uned Stat has also had a gay vice print and, maybe more surprisgly, a gay senator om stunts takg U.

Andrew Jackson referred to Kg as “Miss Nancy”— a phemism for a gay ntemporari lled Kg Buchanan’s “better half, ” and one ngrsman referred to him as “Mrs. At most uld suggt Buchanan was not openly discsg this moment, we fet that beg gay the mid-19th century did not tomatilly exclu a man om natnal learship.

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

The ia that some people, cludg policians and social lears, are gay was not news or shockg to our forefathers. S., sorry, Pete Buttigieg, you n’t aim to be the first gay print, although you uld be the first married gay print.