UK LGBT glossy Attitude has
named Pete Buttigieg its Person of the Year.
Buttigieg, the former mayor of South
Bend, Indiana, made history as he pursued the White House, becoming
the first openly gay presidential candidate in American history to
earn primary delegates. He is also the first presidential candidate
in a same-sex marriage.
“[T]o see Pete Buttigieg proudly kiss
his husband Chasten at campaign rallies before going on to not just
compete in, but win, a presidential caucus in a mid-West US state is
to understand that a glass ceiling for LGBTQ people has truly been
smashed in 2020,” Attitude
editors wrote. “Pete Buttigieg is, for all that he represents,
Attitude's Person of the Year.”
After dropping out of the race,
Buttigieg backed President-elect Joe Biden and became one of Biden's
most vocal surrogates.
Earlier this month, Biden nominated
Buttigieg, an Afghanistan war veteran, as his secretary of
transportation, making Buttigieg the nation's first openly gay
presidential cabinet nominee. (Ric Grenell became the first openly
gay official to serve in the cabinet when President Donald Trump
selected him as acting director of national intelligence. Buttigieg's
nomination, however, is permanent and must be approved by the
Senate.)
Out UK Labour MP Chris Bryant called
Buttigieg's acceptance speech – in
which he thanked his husband – “moving.”
"I defy anyone not to be moved by
his cabinet nomination acceptance speech, in which he tells how he
was infuriated as a young gay teenager by the Republicans’ vicious
opposition to Bill Clinton’s appointment of an openly gay
ambassador in 1998 (to Luxembourg of all places),” Bryant wrote.
“It seemed that people like him were not allowed to belong in
America.”
"He decided 20 years ago that he
wanted to change that, and now he hopes that his appointment will
send teenagers a different message,” he added.