A married gay man is nng for print. That's a big al. | CNN Polics

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?
• THERE WON’T BE A GAY PRINT 2021. SO WHAT DO BUTTIGIEG’S CAMPAIGN TELL US?
• ALMOST 70 PERCENT OF AMERINS OK WH GAY PRINTIAL NDIDATE, POLL FDS
• PETE BUTTIGIEG IS MAKG HISTORY WH 2020 N, BUT MANY AMERINS THK US NOT READY FOR GAY PRINT
• A MARRIED GAY MAN IS NNG FOR PRINT. THAT’S A BIG AL.
• GAY, SGLE, DIVORCED, REMARRIED: DEMOCRATIC NDIDAT REFLECT THE CHANGG AMERIN FAY
• MEET PETE BUTTIGIEG, THE YOUNG, GAY VETERAN AND MIDWT MAYOR WHO WANTS TO TAKE ON TMP 2020
• WILL PETE BUTTIGIEG BE THE FIRST GAY PRINT? OLR LGBTQ AMERINS CELEBRATE HIS N
• PETE BUTTIGIEG SAYS GAY PRINTS HAVE ALREADY BEEN ELECTED BUT DON'T KNOW WHICH ON: 'MY GAYDAR DON'T EVEN WORK THAT WELL THE PRENT'

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. 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.

“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.

IS AMERI READY TO ELECT A GAY PRINT?

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.

THERE WON’T BE A GAY PRINT 2021. SO WHAT DO BUTTIGIEG’S CAMPAIGN TELL US?

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

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

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.

PETE BUTTIGIEG IS MAKG HISTORY WH 2020 N, BUT MANY AMERINS THK US NOT READY FOR 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, ‘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. 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.

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

“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.

Bixby says this is one of the first electns which gay reporters are wrg about the tersectn of sexual inty and the mpaign trail. 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.

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

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. AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTNews AnalysisSupporters say that Pete Buttigieg’s ntributn to history will be dimished if the takeaway is that the untry shgged when the first openly gay man had a ser shot at the Schaff/The New York TimIt was the qutn that followed former Mayor Pete Buttigieg everywhere he went when he first announced his printial mpaign: Is the untry really ready to send a gay man to the Whe Hoe?

Buttigieg’s ntributn to history will be misunrstood and dimished if the ma takeaway is that the first openly gay man to have a ser shot at the princy eliced a llective shg om a untry, as if the untry had moved on om s homophobic past.

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

Buttigieg end his mpaign that she was still awe that he got as far as he you had asked her seven years ago whether an openly gay ndidate uld credibly n for print 2020, she wrote on Twter, “I would have said you were nuts. Buttigieg at a rally a few days before he dropped out of the race, “I want to be brave like you, ” and asked, “Would you help me tell the world I’m gay, too? ”Even 2020, part of the paradox of nng a succsful mpaign as an openly gay man meant that his orientatn uld not fe him to voters who might not fully accept .

”While the qutn of whether the untry is ready to send a gay man to the Whe Hoe remas unanswered, the qutn of whether Amerins will treat one serly as a printial ndidate is now closed, he said. He’s the youngt ndidate nng, he’s the first openly gay ndidate to mount a major mpaign for the princy, and he’s aimg to be the first mayor to go directly om cy hall to the Whe Hoe.

WILL PETE BUTTIGIEG BE THE FIRST GAY PRINT? OLR LGBTQ AMERINS CELEBRATE HIS N

“I’m fely the only left-hand Malte-Amerin-Epispalian-gay-lennial-war veteran the race, but I thk profile is jt what gets you that first look.

This marks a big shift sce 2006, when 53 percent said they'd be “very unfortable” or have “rervatns” about a gay or lbian Pete Buttigieg, of South Bend, Indiana, listens to a qutn durg a stop Raymond, New Hampshire, on Feb. But ’s also worth notg that one fact about him is rarely treated as a liabily: Buttigieg is openly gay and has been married to his hband, Chasten, sce last recently as 2006, when Buttigieg was 24, more than half of Amerins said they would be “very unfortable” (34 percent) or have “rervatns” (19 percent) about a gay or lbian person nng for year, jt five percent said they’d be enthiastic about an LGBT ndidate, acrdg to an NBC/Wall Street Journal poll. A bed 68 percent are eher enthiastic (14 percent) or fortable (54 percent) wh a ndidate who is gay or ’s more, that jump isn’t jt due to creasg tolerance among the younger voters whom Buttigieg, a lennial, n claim to share of those younger than 35 who say they’re enthiastic or fortable wh a gay ndidate creased by 28 percentage pots between 2006 and now, jumpg om 47 percent to 75, while senrs are more likely to voice rervatns about gay ndidat, a majory (56 percent) now say they have no objectns.

WASHINGTON – South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg has ma history as the first openly gay printial ndidate to make a viable n for the nomatn of a major polil party, raisg the qutn: Is Ameri ready for a gay manr chief? Fifty percent said they were personally ready for a gay or lbian print, pared wh 37% who said they were not (13% said they didn't know or had no opn). “It’s a book I wish I would have had when I was terrified, when I was believg that I was the only gay person the world for a long time.

PETE BUTTIGIEG SAYS GAY PRINTS HAVE ALREADY BEEN ELECTED BUT DON'T KNOW WHICH ON: 'MY GAYDAR DON'T EVEN WORK THAT WELL THE PRENT'

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. 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.