Beg Gay on the Campaign Trail Wh Pete Buttigieg - POLITICO

Contents:

• MEET PETE BUTTIGIEG: A GAY MAYOR, AFGHAN WAR VET AND LENNIAL WHO'S NNG FOR PRINT
• LATVIA BE 7TH NATN TO BE LED BY AN OPENLY GAY HEAD OF STATE
• MEET PETE BUTTIGIEG, THE YOUNG, GAY VETERAN AND MIDWT MAYOR WHO WANTS TO TAKE ON TMP 2020
• WILL THE UNED STAT EVER ELECT AN OPENLY GAY PRINT?
• A MARRIED GAY MAN IS NNG FOR PRINT. THAT’S A BIG AL.

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. “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.

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

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.

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

” Smh relled once llg a work about a chyron that read somethg like: “Gay mayor ns for print. “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.

WILL THE UNED STAT EVER ELECT AN OPENLY GAY PRINT?

” “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.

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

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