If Pete Buttigieg wins the Democratic presidential nomination, he’ll make history as the first openly gay nominee from either party. Politically speaking, Buttigieg’s orientation offers some advantages: it sets him apart from the other white men in the race; gives him access to a national donor base; and could attract voters eager to participate in a “first,” a la Barack Obama’s election in 2008.
Still, Buttigieg’s sexuality also carries some political risks — and the reaction *inside* the LGBTQ community might not be as uniformly positive as you’d think. Adam Reilly and Peter Kadzis talk it through with Sue O’Connell, host of NECN’s The Take and co-publisher of Bay Windows, the LGBTQ Boston paper, and Susan Ryan-Vollmar, the former Bay Windows editor and Boston Phoenix news editor.
