At a campaign stop in Iowa,
presidential hopeful Pete Buttigieg, the openly gay mayor of South
Bend, Indiana, accused President Donald Trump of paying “lip
service” to LGBT rights.
The accusation comes after the
president said in a Fox News interview that he was “absolutely
fine” with Buttigieg's sexuality and thought it a sign of progress
that he appears at campaign events with his husband Chasten.
“Even though they're paying lip
service to the idea of – like the president was asked about my
marriage, so he could have the opportunity to say he's fine with it,”
Buttigieg is quoted as saying by ABC
News. “That's fine.”
Trump told Fox News: “I think it's
absolutely fine. I do. I think it's great. I think that's something
that perhaps some people will have a problem with. I have no problem
with it whatsoever.”
(Related: Trump
says “some people” might have a problem with Pete Buttigieg's
sexuality.)
Referring to reports
that the Trump administration refused to issue the equivalent of a
U.S. birth certificate to a baby born in Canada via surrogate to a
married same-sex couple who were biologically related their child,
Buttigieg called the change in policy “discrimination.”
“We find out this week that they
changed the State Department guidance,” Buttigieg told the crowd.
“So if you are, for example, in an international adoption scenario,
and you're a same-sex couple, as far as the United States government
is concerned, you have a child born out of wedlock. Think about what
that means. It means you are not a citizen of the same country as
your own child at the time that they are born. And that's
discrimination.”
During a radio appearance on Friday,
Buttigieg was asked about his criticism of Vice President Mike Pence,
who has said his faith informs him to oppose marriage for gay and
lesbian couples.
Pence “advances homophobic policies,”
Buttigieg told conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt.
(Related: Pete
Buttigieg: Mike Pence shouldn't use religion to justify harming LGBT
community.)