Why Pete Buttigieg wasn’t ‘gay enough’ for the activist left

As Pete Buttigieg ‘suspends’ (read: ends) his campaign for the Democrat nomination, a few words are in order about the first openly gay presidential candidate from a major party. One of the most remarkable aspects of Buttigieg’s run — unthinkable even a decade ago — is that his homosexuality was more of an issue in the gay press than in the mainstream media. He was somewhat caricatured as a Leave It to Beaver gay: he and his husband Chasten look for all the world like your average middle-class suburban marrieds. They’re chablis and J Crew sweaters, not marching, chanting heteronormativity-smashers.

This didn’t sit well with the activist gay left. (You know the sort I mean: the ones who’ve turned it into a calling). They wanted a gay presidential candidate but did it have to be this one? Buttigieg was a gay man Middle America could embrace — and even elect president.