Is Pete Buttigieg too white (and male) for the White House?
According to Politico, there are several Lesbian who are vowing to not vote for Pete Buttigieg.
In taking a look at the demographics supporting Buttigieg, Politico noticed something. Several lesbians are not within that group. For the most part, many of these women believe simply that Buttigieg’s rise to prominence reeks of male favoritism. Especially considering the long-fought battle Hillary Clinton had in her election. And despite winning the popular vote, she still didn’t win the 2016 presidency.
As political consultant Campbell Spencer told Politico, “Mayor Pete, he’s a trailblazer. But I’m one of these women who thinks we are way overdue for having a woman in the White House. That’s a lens through which I’m going to filter my decision.”
“There are black gay men and Latina lesbians — we have all these identities,” added Annise Parker, the former Houston mayor who is now president and CEO of the LGBTQ Victory Fund. “I talk to donors who are really glad that Pete’s running, but want Julián Castro to be on the debate stage. Or who say, ‘I want Cory Booker or Kamala Harris to be on stage.’ I say that’s a great thing.”
“It feels like a slap in the face to just go directly to the white gay guy, when for decades you’ve been trying to elect a woman and it didn’t happen last time,” added one other lesbian Democrat, who works in national politics. “If Pete Buttigieg is elected it won’t feel like a vindication of Hillary Clinton. If a woman is elected, it will.”
For most of the women who spoke to Politico, this was a similar theme. It’s time for a woman in the White House (or at least some sort of diversity outside of a white man). That said, most chose to comment this as anonymous interviewees as not to face any backlash for their thoughts.
The LGBTQ community has been a major supportive group for Buttigieg up to this point. But being openly gay and in a same-sex marriage seems to not be enough for voters. It looks like the very fact that he’s a white man makes him seem dull and passable for some citizens. And with the major upset that happened in 2016, there is some plausibility in this stance.
But will lesbians refusing to vote for Buttigieg create the same result that most White women who refused to vote for Clinton did? We’ll see in due time. But for now, it looks Buttigieg has more to gain voter trust.
“As a woman, as a lesbian, as someone who was all in for Hillary Clinton and as someone who was a historic first myself, I would love to see a woman at the top of the ticket,” Parker said.
“And talking with other women inside the community and not, we understand the importance of Pete’s candidacy — but dammit, we’re half the population. It’s time.”
Source: Politico
YEAH, LET’S BE DIVISIVE AND STUPID JUST BECAUSE ANOTHER FEMALE ISN’T THE CANDIDATE THAT COULD BEAT TRUMP, AND IN SO DOING ASSURE THE BASTARD’S RE-ELECTION. I’M SORRY, BUT THERE WILL BE A TIME WHEN A WOMAN CAN BE PRESIDENT. MAYBE WE CAN START OUT WITH A FEMALE V.P.!
This is a perfect example of how little people have learned from our last election and how Trump can very easily win a second term. This isn’t the time to whine about the importance of the gender of the next President; we need a Democratic candidate running that everyone will support and vote for to ensure we don’t repeat what happened in 2016. At this point I just want to see Trump out of office; I find it very sad that voters are already dividing themselves over whether or not it’s accomplished by a male or female.
Straight cis woman here, and I was going to make a comment, but think I should ask a question first. I grew up in theater in the 1980s to early ’90s and remember being so confused as to why gay men, or the gay men I knew & am still friendly with (I lost a lot of my life following a car wreck, so that’s why the big time jump, most of my friendships since the mid 1990s have been thru letters & social media)
Anyway, I pretty clearly remember all my gay male friends making jokes about lesbians. And those weren’t funny, they were mean. Realizing that many gay men hate gay women back when I was 13 or so in a made me completely confused & extremely sad. I haven’t thought about that much until this article’s click bait title.
If that’s still the case, I wouldn’t want to vote for Pete either. Am I referencing something that hopefully doesn’t still exist? I hope I am, it’s disgusting and disheartening to see marginalized people do the same to others. I also hope that all of us vote for the person best for the job. I feel like I’m still waiting for that person though.
This “It’s a woman’s turn” or “a gay man’s turn” or some vague person who checks all the non older white man boxes can be worrying for me, hopefully for those of us who want the best person for the job. I SO wanted to love Hillary. I voted for her, but honestly it was more voting with my party than being excited about Hillary. I felt she ( ironic as hell now, I’m quite aware) had too much political baggage, a lot of that frankly being one 4 letter word: Bill. The thought of him back in the WH was not a happy one.
Thanks for letting me ramble a bit.
Money talks…so up the ante.
Who? Not sure who you’re talking about here, need some names.
I’ve seen tweets from lesbians attacking Mayor Pete using some pretty nasty language. And it’s sad because Secretary Clinton had the majority of ALL of the LGBTQ Communities vote. I guess from now on I will have to question if I want to vote for a woman. Hmmmm what will the litmus test be, is she too butch, too fem, has she been involved with the whole community or just the lesbian community? I am disappointed in my sisters who would say these things. And to pull the race card on top of it all, that’s just fu*&ed up. I believe that it is WAY PAST time for a woman to be POTUS but Warrens lesbians are making me less likely to campaign in anyway for her.
This goes back to my question about how men in the LGBTQ+ community treat women who are in the same community – maybe I should say ostensibly are in the same. I don’t have memories of gay men being supportive. I do have clear memories of exactly what you wrote, attacks using nasty language – but flip it. In my experience, gay women who thought respect or support or just a kind word coming from gay men were s**t out of luck. The men were awful.
We all hope to be adults and to rise above bullying, and I need to be clear in that AFAIK, Pete hasn’t been a jerk to lesbians, but my gosh, you get treated like crap from this one group long enough, it could be hard to put all that away. I could care less that Pete is gay. He’s just not shown me that he can run the entire country yet, and he’s so young. He’s going to learn and change a bunch in the next 9 years.
The best way to deal with all of it, for me? Let’s go crazy and vote for the person who can do the damn job! Unless we are ready to have some sort of Affirmative Action for political office, which I’m not ready to sign on for. why can’t we vote for the person who has the best chance of hopefully reuniting us? While creating jobs, making sure people like me who are disabled and very forgotten, scared to death that I’m going to live out my days on the street; making sure there is health care for our seniors and our vets? I don’t have a lot of hope now, but I do hope we don’t cut off our noses to spite our faces & vote for the person who looks and acts most like each one of us.
Just another example of closed mind thinking, nobody can see the tree’s for the forest in their way! Ugh, I get it, he is a white man, but to say “anyone but a white guy will do” that is racist also, correct? Yes, that is correct, for ignorant people I will explain the definition of racism, to discriminate against one because of ones skin color… So for these women and other people that have commented, “Any one but a white guy” as a statement, you are racist! Congrats, YOU ARE JUST LIKE A TRUMP SUPPORTER, line up for your spray tan!
Yes, I voted for Hillary, why?? Because she was the best candidate! This is what I mean by “You can’t see the tree because of the forest”. You can’t just say, well you can but then you are showing your level of critical thinking skills, “I’m not voting for someone because they are white”… that is exactly like a Trump supporter saying “I’m not voting for someone that is a women”.. or “black” or whatever. To be an educated voter, you have to watch the debates, listen, see where they stand… and figure out how much of it is a lie and what they really believe in. My Grandmother always said, “ALL politicians are lying, you just have to pic who is lying less”, LOL!
My other problem with this whole ideal that you will vote for anyone but a white guy… is he the best candidate to choose from? Maybe not, maybe he is… what if he would make a wonderful president, but you couldn’t get past the fact he was a white guy? Racist much?
This is a HUGE problem here, uneducated voters emotionally voting, not watching the debates, not reading about the different candidates… just going out and voting!
Hillary was a great option, as I listen to the debates she would be asked a question and then she would give an educated answer. Problem with that is, most people don’t listen to the answer, because the answer isn’t flashy, it is actually kind of long and boring, but it was a plan she was laying out. Then the other side of the coin, Trump, he would give a flashy or shocking answer… well, because American’s have the attention span of a nat, they pay attention to the flashy answer.
I am not saying at all I am voting for this Pete guy yet, I don’t know enough about him yet or where he stands, it would be stupid of me at this point to say I am not voting for him or I am, I don’t have all the facts yet. Yes, I might be a gay man, but I am smart enough to know, just because he is gay doesn’t mean he is the best choice.
So to close, I will keep it simple, if you won’t vote for someone based on their skin color, you are racist. If you won’t vote for someone based on their sex, you are a sexist. If you won’t vote for someone simply because they are a white male, then you are a Sexist Racist! Thumbs up to you! Another uneducated American voter, aren’t we lucky!
HRC has earned no need for “vindication”. And this silly, ill-informed whining about “popular vote” is just tiresome.
So, “I’m so in favor of diversity that anyone who isn’t a white guy will do.”.