Pete Buttigieg’s campaign started with a kiss and ended with a kiss. And in the 322 days between the announcement of his candidacy for South Bend and his suspension in the same city last night, Buttigieg made history by becoming the first openly gay man to run for president.
Shortly after joining the race for the White House I written on these pages about Buttigieg’s candidacy. “Wait what? A married gay presidential candidate, and that is not disqualifying? If someone had suggested that to me six months ago, I would have said,” No way, not gay. “
But after listening to it this April day of last year, I changed my mind by writing: “For the first time, at that time, I believed that a homosexual could be elected president. “
He was there in his uniform – a dark suit, a pressed white shirt and a blue tie – day after day. In a few months, “Mayor Pete” jumped to the top of the hierarchy of more than two dozen Democratic candidates; he raised an incredible $ 24 million in the three-month period ending last June, then, surprisingly, the former mayor of a small town, finished first in Iowa caucuses last month.
Of course, he faced what seemed to be Sisyphagous challenges. He has never been able to expand his support base, especially among African-Americans and Latinos, which the first results from South Carolina clearly demonstrated this weekend. (He won only 2% of black Palmetto State votes, according to NBC News, and his Super Tuesday outlook was not much better.)
For many LGBTQ people, he was not gay or queer enough. Masha Gessen described in the New Yorker last month how a group called Queers Against Pete wrote an open letter signed by two thousand people. He started: “We cannot in all conscience allow Mayor Pete to become the candidate without demanding that he respond to the needs and concerns of LGBTQ2IA communities at large.”
Among the questions listed: “police violence, incarceration, unaffordable health care, homelessness, eviction and economic inequality among others”. Gessen concluded, without love for Buttigieg, “He’s an old politician in the body of a young man, a straight politician in the body of a gay man.”
And the conservative right waged a campaign of non-stop whispers that roared with homophobia. Last July, Breitbart News attacked Buttigieg’s masculinity by calling him “crybaby “(” Pete Buttigieg drops to only 6% support after the performances of Crybaby Debate “).
More Petrow:I worked hard for McGovern and he was doomed. Sanders, please don’t repeat 1972.
Last week, Rush Limbaugh, the conservative radio host, who had just won the Donald Trump Medal of Freedom, said that Buttigieg’s sexual orientation could be his Achilles heel in the general election. “How’s it going to be, a 37-year-old gay man hugs his husband on stage next to ‘Mr. Donald Trump man? “He added:” America is still not ready to elect a gay man who kisses her husband on the stage of debate. “
I’m sorry, “” Mr. Donald Trump Man. “What, real men don’t eat quiche or kiss their husbands?
And then, after a nine-year-old boy asked Buttigieg at a campaign event to “help me tell the world that I’m gay too,” Dave Daubenmire, described on his own website as “an unashamed and articulate apologist for the Christian worldview,” said in his radio broadcast: “Fifty years ago, they would have thrown Buttfudge in jail for even talking about him and talking about it in front of a young child. “Yes, he called the candidate” Buttfudge “, alleging that Buttigieg” contributed to the delinquency of a minor “.
With Buttigieg’s run for president now in the rear view window, I end up with two visuals of the candidate. One of them is from him with this 9 year old boy (whose name is Zachary Ro). After the moderator read the question, which ended with a plaintive, “I want to be brave like you,” replied Buttigieg, “Wow!” while the song sang “Love is love!” Maureen Groppe of USA Today reported. He then motioned for the young man to go on stage saying, “I don’t think you need a lot of advice from me on bravery. You sound pretty strong.” It was a moment and a photo who spoke directly of the historic nature of this candidacy, one generation opening the closet door for another.
“I know that at the end of this campaign there is a disappointment that we are not continuing,” said Buttigieg last night. “But I hope everyone who has participated in one way or another knows that the campaign you have built and the community you have created are just the beginning of the change we are going to make together.” To that, the crowd chanted “2024, 2024, 2024!”
I wrote earlier that Buttigieg’s race started with a kiss and ended with a kiss. And last night, as they had done 322 days earlier, the Buttigiegs – Pete and Chasten – kissed in front of the roaring crowd on live television broadcast worldwide.
Goodbye for now, Mayor Pete. But it is not a farewell.
Steven Petrow is a member of the USA TODAY contributor committee and the author of five books on the label. Follow him on Twitter: @StevenPetrow; like him on Facebook at facebook.com/stevenpetrow
