Mayor Pete Buttigieg: Beg Gay Is 'Not The Only Thg That Def Me' — WATCH - Towleroad Gay News

Contents:

• PETE BUTTIGIEG MAK HISTORY AS 1ST OPENLY GAY CABET MEMBER NFIRMED BY SENATE
• PETE BUTTIGIEG BE FIRST OPENLY GAY PERSON NFIRMED TO US BET
• MEET PETE BUTTIGIEG: A GAY MAYOR, AFGHAN WAR VET AND LENNIAL WHO'S NNG FOR PRINT
• IN STIRRG SPEECH, PETE BUTTIGIEG MAK HISTORY AGA FOR LGBTQ AMERINS AS FIRST GAY BET NOMEE
• PETE BUTTIGIEG: HOW A YOUNG, GAY MAYOR BEME A DEMOCRATIC STAR
• MAYOR PETE BUTTIGIEG: BEG GAY IS ‘NOT THE ONLY THG THAT DEF ME’ — WATCH
• WHO IS PETE BUTTIGEIG, THE GAY MILLENNIAL MAYOR THE DEMOCRATS DIDN’T SEE COMG?

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

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

PETE BUTTIGIEG BE FIRST OPENLY GAY PERSON NFIRMED TO US BET

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. Pete Buttigieg won Senate approval on Tuday as transportatn secretary, the first out gay person to be nfirmed to a bet post. Unr Donald Tmp, Richard Grenell served as actg director of natnal telligence and is gay, but he did not have to face Senate nfirmatn as an actg director.

Harvard UniversyTHE LONG RUNAnd why took him until he was 33 to e Buttigieg as a senr at Harvard UniversyJuly 14, 2019The closet that Pete Buttigieg built for himself the late 1990s and 2000s was a lot like the on that other gay men of his age and ambn hid si. Buttigieg’s class, relled that “ was still a time where volizg anti-gay sentiments was not only mon, but I thk pretty accepted. ”The thought that 15 years later someone they might have shared a dorm or sat a lecture hall wh would bee the first ser openly gay ndidate for print of the Uned Stat never crossed their mds.

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

But no one would have found the possibily more implsible than the young man everyone on mp knew as Buttigieg, now the mayor of South Bend, Ind., stggled for a after leavg Harvard to overe the fear that beg gay was “a reer ath sentence, ” as he put his his generatn and his llege class cid to e out as young adults, whether they were nfint they would be accepted or not, and had their 20s to navigate beg open about their inty — a procs that helped make Amerins more aware and acceptg of their gay iends, fay members and -workers. Attus toward gay rights changed immensely durg that perd, though he acknowledg that he was not always able or willg to see what broar social and legal shifts meant for him personally. ‘Someone Who Would Run for Print’He took a longer journey than his peers did, he has said, bee of the ner turmoil he experienced over whether fact he wanted to be known as the “gay” polician.

Also known as “Mayor Pete, ” he is vyg to bee the first openly gay print. He me out as gay while seekg re-electn, and he won.

Also known as “Mayor Pete, ” he is vyg to bee the first openly gay Schar for The New York TimHis rerd of acplishment durg those years the closet is impossible to separate om the isolatn and anxiety he felt as he weighed the st of tellg his fay, iends and nstuents who he really was. Even liberal Cambridge, where meetg a gay stunt or profsor would have been fairly unremarkable, did not always nurture the sense of nfince that he and many of his gay classmat felt they need to be themselv.

IN STIRRG SPEECH, PETE BUTTIGIEG MAK HISTORY AGA FOR LGBTQ AMERINS AS FIRST GAY BET NOMEE

Agosti/Getty ImagWhen members of the Harvard class of 2004 were junrs high school, Matthew Shepard, a 21-year-old gay man om Wyomg, was bludgeoned, tied to a fence post and left to die a murr that shocked the natn’s nscience. By the time they shipped off to Cambridge, few would have any gay iends — at least on who were open about . The clost thg gay men and lbians had to marriage was a civil unn, which 2000 was legal exactly one state: Vermont.

“Gay marriage was not this obv liberal no-braer, ” said Mr. Buttigieg as thoughtful and clearly on a trajectory that would brg him succs of some kd, even if dawned on few of them that might mean the Whe thg no one seemed to peg him for was someone wrtlg wh beg gay.

PETE BUTTIGIEG: HOW A YOUNG, GAY MAYOR BEME A DEMOCRATIC STAR

Flood the begng of his sophomore year, Mr.

“We were fely on oppose ends of the gay spectm — he was closeted and I was lerally the mp drag queen, Miss Harvard 2002, ” said William Lee Adams, who graduated Mr. Buttigieg and his peers left llege and started embarkg on their profsnal liv, the untry was changg signifint ways, joltg their sense of what uld mean to be openly gay and have a high-profile reer.

Then Congrs would repeal the ary’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” ban on servg openly as gay or lbian.

MAYOR PETE BUTTIGIEG: BEG GAY IS ‘NOT THE ONLY THG THAT DEF ME’ — WATCH

And the Supreme Court would clare the rights of gay men and lbians to have their relatnships regnized by the state, first 2013 when stck down the Defense of Marriage Act Uned Stat v. Texas, which stck down bans on timacy between homosexuals on grounds that such laws were an afont to their digny. Pappas, the ngrsman om New Hampshire, ran his first race for state legislature 2002 as an openly gay ndidate and won.

WHO IS PETE BUTTIGEIG, THE GAY MILLENNIAL MAYOR THE DEMOCRATS DIDN’T SEE COMG?

And after hearg om people who told him how enuragg was to see him as an openly gay man polics, Mr. “I don’t thk I fully appreciated that at first, ” he Gay Is ‘Not the Only Part’ After he graduated, Mr.

” She remembers two puter screens on his he me out, she said that beg gay was never the first thg he wanted people to see when they met him — a veteran, Rhos scholar, polyglot who was first elected mayor of South Bend when he was 29. A lol gay rights group did not ially endorse him that race, optg stead for a ndidate wh a more tablished track rerd on the issu. “It took years of stggle and growth for me to regnize that ’s jt a fact of life, like havg brown hair, and part of who I am, ” he may have waed far longer than most young gay men today.

In ls than four years he went om beg sgle and closeted to beg married and out as a gay ndidate 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.