Tuesday, June 16, 2015

South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg: I Am Gay


South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg (D) in a column in today's South Bend Tribune has revealed to his city's residents that he's gay. Buttigieg believes with the U.S. Supreme Court set to issue a ruling on same-sex couples' right to marry any day now, the time was right to discuss his sexual orientation. Buttigieg, who is seeking re-election this year, says he had already come out to his family and friends. Here's an excerpt of what he wrote in his coming out column:
. . . I was well into adulthood before I was prepared to acknowledge the simple fact that I am gay. It took years of struggle and growth for me to recognize that it’s just a fact of life, like having brown hair, and part of who I am.
Putting something this personal on the pages of a newspaper does not come easy. We Midwesterners are instinctively private to begin with, and I’m not used to viewing this as anyone else’s business.
But it’s clear to me that at a moment like this, being more open about it could do some good. For a local student struggling with her sexuality, it might be helpful for an openly gay mayor to send the message that her community will always have a place for her. And for a conservative resident from a different generation, whose unease with social change is partly rooted in the impression that he doesn’t know anyone gay, perhaps a familiar face can be a reminder that we’re all in this together as a community.
Whenever I’ve come out to friends and family, they’ve made clear that they view this as just a part of who I am. Their response makes it possible to feel judged not by sexual orientation but by the things that we ought to care about most, like the content of our character and the value of our contributions.
Being gay has had no bearing on my job performance in business, in the military, or in my current role as mayor. It makes me no better or worse at handling a spreadsheet, a rifle, a committee meeting, or a hiring decision. It doesn’t change how residents can best judge my effectiveness in serving our city: by the progress of our neighborhoods, our economy, and our city services.
We’re moving closer to a world in which acceptance is the norm. This kind of social change, considered old news in some parts of the country, is still often divisive around here. But it doesn’t have to be. We’re all finding our way forward, and things will go better if we can manage to do it together. In the wake of the disastrous “Religious Freedom Restoration Act” episode here in Indiana earlier this year, we have an opportunity to demonstrate how a traditional, religious state like ours can move forward. If different sides steer clear of name-calling and fear-mongering, we can navigate these issues based on what is best about Indiana: values like respect, decency, and support for families — all families.
Like most people, I would like to get married one day and eventually raise a family. I hope that when my children are old enough to understand politics, they will be puzzled that someone like me revealing he is gay was ever considered to be newsworthy. By then, all the relevant laws and court decisions will be seen as steps along the path to equality. But the true compass that will have guided us there will be the basic regard and concern that we have for one another as fellow human beings — based not on categories of politics, orientation, background, status or creed, but on our shared knowledge that the greatest thing any of us has to offer is love.
I believe Buttigieg becomes the first Indiana mayor to openly acknowledge he's gay while serving in office.

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

I wonder if Freedom Indiana, Katie Blair, Megan Roberston, and the portion of my LGBT brothers and sisters who support "rights" agendas at the expense of civil and Constitutional rights of others- especially Christians- will see an anomaly between Mayor Buttigieg's words and the actions of Hoosier far left liberals on the subject: "...But the true compass that will have guided us there will be the basic regard and concern that we have for one another as fellow human beings — based not on categories of politics, orientation, background, status or creed, but on our shared knowledge that the greatest thing any of us has to offer is love."

Anonymous said...

He served in Afghanistan doing intelligence work, just part of his remarkable story.  He was valedictorian and class president of his graduating class at St. Joseph's High School in South Bend. That year, he also won the national John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Essay Contest. At Harvard, where he graduated in 2004, Buttigieg was president of the Institute of Politics Student Advisory Committee. In 2005, he headed to Oxford University to study politics, philosophy and economics as a Rhodes Scholar. He’s supposed to be a great guy. Being gay is no detriment. He will probably spend his life serving Indiana and his country. American patriots. We need more just like him.

Anonymous said...

he's also a big time hypocritical phony.

Anonymous said...

I have it on good authority that his parents are going on The Today Show stating that he was actually born straight!!

Veracity said...

Well done, Mayor Pete! Anon 9:42: Such a masterful display of logic - calling someone a hypocritical phony because they were completely honest.

Anonymous said...

Time to jump on the bandwagon!

Anonymous said...

"Pride" cometh before the fall.

Anonymous said...

Because he's remarkable lesser men feel the need to bring him down. Troll on, lesser men, troll on.

Gary R. Welsh said...

Buttigieg supported and signed into law an ordinance protecting gays from discrimination so he wasn't being hypocritical in any public policy position of which I'm aware.

Anonymous said...

we are at a point in time where coming out and acknowledging you're gay can actually boost your career rather than hinder it.

either way, knowing he's a democrat makes me think he's corrupt, dishonest, incompetent, and a fraud like the rest of them, gay or not.

Anonymous said...

A couple of years ago I was talking to a very active Democrat always trying to be seen and heard from as much as possible in Indianapolis. The topic of Pete Buttigieg came up in a discussion of possible statewide candidates. I mentioned that I had it on pretty good authority that Buttigieg was gay. This individual got upset and accused me of trying to smear Buttigieg. Imagine my reaction when I saw this individual interviewed on a local TV news station discussing his pleasure at Buttigieg coming out of the closet.

Gary R. Welsh said...

Anon. 6:26, I was similarly met with derision when I mentioned the same thing to a local Democrat. A lot of people seemed to know he was gay, but Democratic partisans tended to react negatively when folks brought it up. They wanted to keep him in the closet as long as they could until they were satisfied it would play out the way they wanted it to play out.

Anonymous said...

He is also not white!