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
• IS AMERI READY TO ELECT A GAY PRINT?
• PETE BUTTIGIEG MAK HISTORY AS 1ST OPENLY GAY CABET MEMBER NFIRMED BY SENATE
• TMP NAM THE FIRST OPENLY GAY PERSON TO A BET-LEVEL POSN
• A MARRIED GAY MAN IS NNG FOR PRINT. THAT’S A BIG AL.
• LATVIA BE 7TH NATN TO BE LED BY AN OPENLY GAY HEAD OF STATE
• AMERI'S ONLY BACHELOR PRINT MAY HAVE BEEN ITS ONLY GAY ONE
• ALMOST 70 PERCENT OF AMERINS OK WH GAY PRINTIAL NDIDATE, POLL FDS
• WOULD BUTTIGIEG BE THE FIRST GAY PRINT? MAYBE NOT.
• MEET PETE BUTTIGIEG, THE YOUNG, GAY VETERAN AND MIDWT MAYOR WHO WANTS TO TAKE ON TMP 2020
• DEMOCRATIC MAYOR PETE BUTTIGIEG NNG FOR PRINT; WOULD BE FIRST OPENLY GAY NOMEE
• 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. 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.

“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.

IS AMERI READY TO ELECT A GAY PRINT?

“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. 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.

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. “Havg so many LGBTQ reporters verg this mpaign has helped facilate a more thoughtful and nuanced nversatn about what means to be gay 2020.

PETE BUTTIGIEG MAK HISTORY AS 1ST OPENLY GAY CABET MEMBER NFIRMED BY SENATE

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. “I’m always cur to see what a gay voter some of the plac that aren’t the gay mecs is talkg about.

TMP NAM THE FIRST OPENLY GAY PERSON TO A BET-LEVEL POSN

” “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, ‘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.

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

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.

LATVIA BE 7TH NATN TO BE LED BY AN OPENLY GAY HEAD OF STATE

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. “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.

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

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.

WOULD BUTTIGIEG BE THE FIRST GAY PRINT? MAYBE NOT.

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. ’ That was maybe the first time I ever gave any thought to whether a gay person might ever n for print, ” Bixby says.

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

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. Former 2020 printial ndidate and South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg has ma history as the first openly gay Cabet member U.

DEMOCRATIC MAYOR PETE BUTTIGIEG NNG FOR PRINT; WOULD BE FIRST OPENLY GAY NOMEE

"I n remember watchg the news -- 17-years-old Indiana, seeg a story about an appotee of Print Clton named to be an ambassador attacked and nied a vote the Senate bee he was gay -- ultimately able to serve only by a recs appotment, " he said. Eric Fanng served as Secretary of the Army durg the Obama Admistratn, the first openly gay dividual to hold an armed service's top civilian posn. In the Tmp admistratn, Richard Grenell served as actg director of Natnal Intelligence, the first openly gay dividual to serve a Cabet-level posn an actg pacy, but his posn was not 's Cabet also clus the first female treasury secretary, first female director of Natnal Intelligence and first Black fense secretary.

Before beg actg director of natnal telligence, he led an effort to crimalize homosexualy untri where is illegal.

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

Print Tmp beme the first print to name an openly gay person to a Cabet-level posn this week wh the appotment of Richard Grenell as actg director of natnal telligence. As ambassador to Germany, he spearhead a global effort to end the crimalizatn of homosexualy nearly 70 untri where is still illegal.

The iative followed the reported hangg of a gay man Iran, one of the Tmp admistratn’s adversari, and an op-ed for a German news publitn Grenell voiced a ll to arms.

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.

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. 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.