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
• A MARRIED GAY MAN IS NNG FOR PRINT. THAT’S A BIG AL.
• PETE BUTTIGIEG BE FIRST OPENLY GAY DEMOCRAT TO N FOR PRINT
• DEMOCRATIC MAYOR PETE BUTTIGIEG NNG FOR PRINT; WOULD BE FIRST OPENLY GAY NOMEE
• A MEMOIR FROM THE YOUNG, GAY MAYOR OF SOUTH BEND RUNNG FOR PRINT
• WOULD BUTTIGIEG BE THE FIRST GAY PRINT? MAYBE NOT.
• TMP SAYS HE WOULD VOTE FOR A GAY PRINT

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. 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.

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

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. Gay marriage was legal only two stat January 2009 – Massachetts and Connecticut. 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.

I am not favor of gay marriage, ” Obama told MTV News durg the 2008 mpaign. 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.

PETE BUTTIGIEG BE FIRST OPENLY GAY DEMOCRAT TO N FOR PRINT

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.

All of this is to say, que simply, that a relatively brief perd of time, the polics surroundg gay marriage and LGBT equaly shifted dramatilly.

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

For a lol stunt stgglg wh her sexualy, might be helpful for an openly gay mayor to send the msage that her muny will always have a place for her. And for a nservative rint om a different generatn, whose unease wh social change is partly rooted the imprsn that he don’t know anyone gay, perhaps a faiar face n be a remr that we’re all this together as a muny. But one thg is for sure: Havg a gay ndidate – or nomee, or print – is no longer such a farfetched ia.

WASHINGTON — Pete Buttigieg, the 37-year-old mayor of South Bend, Indiana, announced Wednday that he was formg a printial exploratory mtee — makg him the first openly gay Democrat to seek the office.

Before Buttigieg, the only openly gay person to n for print was Republin Fred Karger. Buttigieg said that while beg a gay ndidate might not make news the astal ci, certaly still did Indiana, where he has anchored his still-young polil reer. ""Right now our untry needs a h start, " he he were to w the Democratic nomatn, Buttigieg would be the first openly gay printial nomee om a major polil party.

A MEMOIR FROM THE YOUNG, GAY MAYOR OF SOUTH BEND RUNNG FOR PRINT

"Amid his mpaign for a send term, Buttigieg me out as gay a lumn the lol newspaper. ” A polil actn mtee ntrolled by South Bend, Indiana’s mayor, Pete Buttigieg—the Rhos scholar, veteran, and Harvard grad whom New York Tim lumnist Frank Bni has said uld be the “first openly gay print”—has been spendg money Iowa (as well as Geia, Arizona, Michigan, and Colorado) sce March.

In 2008, only 39 percent of Amerins were favor of gay marriage; that number is now over 60 percent.

WOULD BUTTIGIEG BE THE FIRST GAY PRINT? MAYBE NOT.

He is gay. If the unrlyg pot of this book is to draw attentn to himself as a future Democratic lear for a party achg for one, then his thumpg re-electn as mayor a state Tmp ptured wh 56 percent is que a sellg small part of the fascatn is that he is openly gay, twice elected what he has sardonilly scribed as “flyover untry.

TMP SAYS HE WOULD VOTE FOR A GAY PRINT

It tak more than 40 pag until he clearly allus to beg gay, a quick tour as he scrib wnsg the rise of the fant Facebook at Harvard. When he wr about alg wh Mike Pence (who was then the ernor) as Pence champned a “relig eedom” bill that crics argued would let anizatns discrimate agast gays and lbians, Buttigieg across as jt another player at the table.

“The scenar of a 30-somethg mayor, sgle, gay, terted a long-term relatnship and lookg for a date Indiana mt have been a first, ” he wr.

Buttigieg reprents a new generatn of gay Amerins, one whose sexualy is not trsic to their one would ever acce Buttigieg of beg an evotive wrer, but the story is told wh brisk engagement — is difficult not to like him — whout skg to the kd of prose one might fear om someone traed wrg reports for McKsey. After readg this memoir wrten 25 years later, the notn that Buttigieg might be the natn’s first openly gay print don’t feel que as Nagourney is the Los Angel bure chief of The Tim and the -thor of “Out for Good: The Stggle to Build a Gay Rights Movement Ameri.