'Beg gay is not enough': Buttigieg's ndidacy divis LGBTQ Democrats

Contents:

• 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 MAK HISTORY AS 1ST OPENLY GAY CABET MEMBER NFIRMED BY SENATE
• 'BEG GAY IS NOT ENOUGH': BUTTIGIEG'S NDIDACY DIVIS LGBTQ DEMOCRATS
• BUTTIGIEG, THE FIRST OPENLY GAY DEMOCRATIC PRINTIAL NDIDATE, WAS HATED BY THE LEFT. WHY?
• MEET PETE BUTTIGIEG, THE YOUNG, GAY VETERAN AND MIDWT MAYOR WHO WANTS TO TAKE ON TMP 2020
• A MARRIED GAY MAN IS NNG FOR PRINT. THAT’S A BIG AL.
• PETE BUTTIGIEG SAYS "'S ALMOST CERTA" HE WOULDN'T BE FIRST GAY PRINT
• WOULD BUTTIGIEG BE THE FIRST GAY PRINT? MAYBE NOT.

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. Nearly a year ago D Mo, Pete Buttigieg hugged his hband onstage after his w the Iowa uc ma him the first openly LGBTQ ndidate to earn legat toward a major polil party’s printial, he’s makg history aga as the first openly gay man to be nomated to a Cabet role, wh Print-elect Joe Bin tappg Buttigieg this week as his pick for U. “I n remember watchg the news… (and) 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.

“This will be a historic tone for LGBTQ visibily, ” said GLAAD print/CEO Sarah Kate Ellis a statement posted on Twter, notg that should the former South Bend, Indiana, mayor be nfirmed by the Senate, he would bee the first openly gay Cabet secretary U. “If you’re not at the table, you’re probably on the menu, ” Jenngs said an terview, notg that gay Amerins died by the tens of thoands whout high-level reprentatn durg the AIDS crisis of the 1980s.

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

”Meanwhile, the Log Cab Republins, an anizatn reprentg LGBT nservativ, were quick to note that Buttigieg would not be the first openly gay man to serve a Cabet-level role. Navy Rerve, me out as gay while servg as South Bend mayor 2015, sayg he had felt for years that he uld be out or polics, but not nomatn as Transportatn secretary, said LGBTQ Victory Instute print Annise Parker, “is a new tone a s-long effort to ensure LGBTQ people are reprented throughout our ernment – and s impact will reverberate well beyond the partment he will lead.

Supreme Vedda, print and CEO of the North Texas LGBT Chamber of Commerce, said he hoped Buttigieg is appreciated as much for the skills and perspective he brgs to the Cabet role as for his stat as a gay man, though he acknowledged that Buttigieg’s visibily uld help break down stereotyp. — Pete Buttigieg, the former small-cy Indiana mayor and first openly gay major printial ndidate, said Sunday night he was droppg out of the Democratic race, followg a cshg loss the South Carola primary where his poor performance wh black Democrats signaled an abily to build a broad aln of cisn jt 48 hours before the biggt votg day of the primary, Super Tuday, when 15 stat and terrori will allot about one-third of the legat over all.

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

“He is the first openly gay ndidate for print of the Uned Stat and he did extraordarily well, ” Mr.

'BEG GAY IS NOT ENOUGH': BUTTIGIEG'S NDIDACY DIVIS LGBTQ DEMOCRATS

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.

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.

BUTTIGIEG, THE FIRST OPENLY GAY DEMOCRATIC PRINTIAL NDIDATE, WAS HATED BY THE LEFT. WHY?

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. The Shame of Pete ButtigiegMany LGBTQ voters thk that the first openly gay Democratic printial ndidate seems too straight. Arguments that prent Pete Buttigieg as not really gay so obvly flirt wh the sentialism queer people fight agast that ’s a b shockg to see them get tractn at all.

At a CNN town hall South Carola, the printial ndidate marveled at meetg children who are openly gay. If there was a pill, a pill that I uld take and not be gay anymore, then I would’ve jumped on .

”Such reactns plaly misreprented Buttigieg’s meang or, bizarrely, implied that gay people should never talk about the pa of the closet. Really, though, they shoved the pill-the-gay-away ment to a preexistg narrative: the one that says Buttigieg is basilly straight. There’s a hashtag gog around, #PetNotGay, that volv dissectns of the mayor’s closed-mouthed kiss wh his hband on the mpaign trail.

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

In a New Yorker piece tled “The Queer Backlash to Pete Buttigieg Explaed, ” Masha Gsen ends by llg Buttigieg “a straight polician a gay man’s body. ”The arguments that prent Buttigieg as not really gay so obvly flirt wh the sentialism queer people fight agast that ’s a b shockg to see them get tractn at all. Progrsive gays who survey the current polil landspe and bet that the way to succsfully enact enomic and social jtice is by triangulatg between Bernie Sanrs and Joe Bin are—and this is the stickg pot—still gay.

That mantra of gay is good works as an anti-stigmatizg tool; ’s what, fact, Buttigieg was vokg by sayg he was glad he wasn’t able to medilize himself straight. Conflatg gayns wh any particular moral, polil, or athetic value the observer has emed good, though, is an act of hijackg—one weirdly siar to the rhetoril move homophob e when they say gay people are be sure, there are plenty of legimate criqu g om queer folks. Meanwhile, the chatter patg Buttigieg as virtually straight pots to somethg that’s harr to talk about: the ways which a Democratic ont-nner is, fact, unmissably gay, and how the backlash to him is self tged wh s own stra of queer past week wasn’t the first time Buttigieg mentned havg wanted a pill to bee straight.

Smh Go to Washgton pretens (regardg Mike Pence’s homophobia: “Your quarrel, sir, is wh my Creator”), and his squirmy phemisms (tch the Grdr joke? It’s hard to face the tth that there were tim my life when, if you had shown me exactly what was si me that ma me gay, I would have cut out wh a knife. Gayns, by ntrast, is picted mostly glancg terms, and mostly as a reer problem he had to solve.

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

He mentns beg ribbed gym class, but if the mockery volved homophobic slurs, we don’t hear about . But I have thought a lot about the stereotyp of gay men as hyper-succsful, image-nsc, and wound.

I have revised Alan Downs’s wily read 2005 book, The Velvet Rage, which diagnosed gay men’s fg motive as shame. Instead, we chased the affectn, approval, and attentn doled out by “we” there is prumptuo, but the attus scribed are ed mon to many gay liv.

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

If he were to w, he would be the youngt ever print, the first openly gay one, and one of the least experienced too. ”At the same time, as the #PetNotGay crowd dwells on, he has played down his sexualy strategic ways. The way he’s prented his marriage and his life story unrl the ways which a gay life n remble a straight one.

The route has been so ft that, acrdg to one viral vio om the Iowa uc, people might actually st ballots for him whout realizg he’s gay. A “gayer” ndidate—or at least one more nsistently spirg across the LGBTQ spectm—would be unmistakable.

They would not make queer viewers thk of when they’ve ma siar elisns at work, wh fay, on the street, or even their own ternal that “gayer” ndidate also might not have the tractn Buttigieg has now.

WOULD BUTTIGIEG BE THE FIRST GAY PRINT? MAYBE NOT.

On one end of the Buttigieg reactn spectm is the homophobic voter Iowa who tried to reclaim her ballot after beg told, durg the uc, that the ndidate she jt st a vote for is gay. When Pete Buttigieg walked away om this month’s Iowa uc wh the most legat, marked the first time an openly gay ndidate had ever won a state’s printial nomatg ntt. “It’s tly embarrassg to have the first gay printial ndidate of this magnu be this nservative — next, ” poet Alex Dimrov wrote on Twter the day after the uc on Feb.

Buttigieg certaly has his fair share of queer supporters — cludg several LGBTQ officials and a number of the untry’s largt gay advocy groups — his historic ndidacy has ntributed to long-simmerg tensns wh the muny boilg to public view. While the polici of the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, play a part, the tensns appear to center on power, privilege and reprentatn wh the diverse lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr and queer muny.