It’s that time of the primary season when things start turning ugly. On Friday, a gaggle of protestors descended upon a fundraiser in San Francisco for Pete Buttigieg.
The dinner was being held at the National LGBTQ Center for the Arts. Tickets started at $250.
Just as Buttigieg was about to answer a question about his husband, Chasten, members of a group called “Queers Against Pete” jumped to their feet and began shouting at him.
From the stage, Buttigieg replied, “I respect your activism, but this is a gathering for supporters of our campaign and I just got a question about my husband and I’m really excited to answer it.”
How about we take this to the next level?
Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
The protestors were removed from the venue, but video of the confrontation quickly began circulating on social media.
Here’s video of the queer activists disrupting the Pete Buttigieg fundraiser pic.twitter.com/yh9CmTBhMh
— Vivian Ho (@VivianHo) February 14, 2020
According to its website, Queers Against Pete opposes Buttigieg because of his stance on Medicare for All and free college tuition, as well as his record on race.
Members also feel he represents a white, upper-middle class sensibility that is not representative of the entire LGBTQ community.
Of course, expecting any one single person to represent an entire community seems unreasonable. But we digress.
“We believe the LGBTQIA community deserves better than Pete,” the group declares on its website.
“He just furthers white supremacy,” Val, a member of Queers Against Pete member, recently told The Red Lettuce, a queer vegan communist online program. “It’s like, you know, spewing out of him, kind of. It’s gross.”
Hmmm. We can think of things that are much grosser…
thisisnotreal
“ a queer vegan communist online program.” …yeah I checked out at that part, no thanks.
bbg372
Queers Against Pete is a proxy for the Sanders campaign. It is very telling that a group supposedly united around queer issues does not have a single criticism of Buttigieg on queer issues. Rather, all of their criticisms have nothing to do with queer identity at all. Instead, there only complaint appears to be that he is a different candidate than the one they support.
CityguyUSA
“Members also feel he represents a white, upper-middle class sensibility that is not representative of the entire LGBTQ community,” what else would you like?
Polaro
As a gay, white, upper-middle class person, I’m offended at your disregard for me and people like me.
SoCalDave
If this was a generation ago, Pete would have been a closeted Republican and would have supported the Defense of Marriage Act if he thought it would get him re-elected and you all know it.
Donston
Perhaps, but that’s in an alternate universe. And were there any candidates caping up for gay marriage 20 years ago? While there still are plenty of closeted politicians and plenty of “queer” Republicans today. Even in this generation it’s kinda shocking that a male who is openly gay-identifying and has a husband has the slightest chance at being elected. Pete isn’t my favorite, never has been. He just doesn’t have the experience or record (not that that ever seems to matter when it comes to getting elected). But I do find a great percentage of these “queers” who really resent him to be distasteful, pretentious, insecure, sometimes misandrist and even sometimes anti-gay. A lot of them seem to resent Pete not because of his stances or his record. Much of the resentment seems to exist because he doesn’t represent their “freakdom” and their “outsider” status, because he’s apparently happily to a someone of his sex, because he’s gay-identifying, because he’s “straight-passing”, because he’s white and male, and because he hasn’t gone out of his way to represent “queers”. It’s kinda weird, and it reflects some of the issues I have with a percentage of the “queer community”.
TedV
The point is it’s NOT a generation ago. You can go on tilting at windmills from another generation, but the real world has moved on. In the real world gays have a divergence of viewpoints, and to demonize a candidate who is in favor of gun control, climate change legislation, expanding health care, education reform and environmental regulation because he doesn’t hew to exactly every single position that a self-appointed warrior class has deemed important just shows that the circular firing squad has formed. We have met the enemy, and it is us.
Vince
Great response Ted and so true! 🙂
VOTE BLUE NO MATTER WHO.
Donston
Let’s be real. A lot of the social media “queer community” stuff is driven by women and driven by men who constantly seek to appease women. So, there is often this less than subtle tension when it comes to guys who unabashedly love their sex and have unabashed romantic and relationship ambitions towards their sex or are gay-identifying, especially when those males are white and “straight passing”. There’s a lot masculine resentment, misandry, self-misandry, gay shaming, male-male love shaming underneath the surface when it comes to a large percentage of these “proudly queer” people on social media. Pete represents a good deal of what a lot of these people resent but won’t directly expose. Even as an inherently pan-sexual black guy I can see it. And it disturbs me. Pete also isn’t “revolutionary” enough for some folks. But Sanders does not represent practicality, which is something needed in the White House, especially right now. Bernie gets in there and the extreme divisiveness and getting nothing done-ness will only persists. Of course, if he is the candidate I most certainly will be voting for him.
Alton
A generation ago, Pete Buttigieg won a contest with an essay praising Bernie Sanders.
Anti-Buttigieg people in general are ludicrous, but queer anti-Buttigieg people are a gross embarrassment to our community.
SoCalDave
What’s ludicrous is voting for an LGBT Uncle Tom just because he’s gay. I’d vote for Pete over Trump in November if those are the only two options. But this is a Democratic primary, and the idea a consultant class corporatist pseudo-Republican who is way under-qualified and who also has a bad track record with minorities as mayor is owed our vote just because we’re gay is what’s ludicrous.
Donston
I don’t think he’s owed anybody’s vote. But I think using the “he’s not weird enough” and overtly “queer” enough argument is incredibly problematic. It just highlights your own insecurities and/or resentments. I have issues with Pete. However, I’m not going to resist voting for him because he’s whitebread, “straight passing” and hasn’t gone out of his way appease the “lgbtq community”. At the end of that day, this is the world of politics. This ain’t no revolution.
jkb
After the crap he pulled in Iowa, claiming to have won before counting, conspired with app maker and dnc to steal caucus, and mysteriously had all errors go in his favor. His gayness should have nothing to do with anyone’s distaste for him.
Crystix
Its a caucus, NOT a secret ballot. Everyone’s vote is out in public, literally. Having people count votes in enough districts would show he had the advantage, which he did.
But yes, lets complain because he won fair and square, and when the votes were recounted and confirmed, still won. What a slimeball! How dare he claim victory when he won! THE NERVE!
Den
Yeah, let’s undermine support, and even better not go to the polls if our favorite does not get the nomination. And better still, vote for a third party our losing candidate retreats to!!
Let’s assure a second term victory for Trump because he is SO good for LGBT people, especially all those judges he has appointed and the favors he’s given to “people of faith” hell bent on forcing us back into the closet.
Smith David
i’m not sure I understand what’s going on anymore. Should I vote for Trump? Is that what the queer activists are saying? Or should I vote for Pete? I’m not sure who to vote for. Also, I’ve decided to approach my neighbor about his cats bullying me in the mornings. They make me so nervous.
Kangol2
Huh? Drumpf’s reactionary policies are the antithesis BOTH of Pete Buttigieg and these radical queers. So why would you vote for him instead of for a politician occupying positions on the spectrum from Buttigieg, a social and fiscal liberal-neoliberal to the ultraprogressive, Democratic Socialist positions of the radical queers? Do you agree with what Drumpf is doing to the US and globe? If not, then do not vote for him or anyone who supports his misrule.
bodie425
Oh for god’s sake, Kangol, he was being snarky. sigh. The purists on the conservative side hold their nose and vote in a POS, while lib/progressives rearrange the deck chairs on the Titanic. If the purists on our side don’t get a clue, we’re gonna kiss the 2020 iceberg so so hard.
Polaro
They’re trolls.
trsxyz123
I like him. You can never get everything that you want in a candidate. But he’s whip-smart, and he checks all the important boxes.
Saps48
>>Of course, excepting any one single person to represent an entire community seems unreasonable.
Editor, it’s expecting, not excepting…
dannysax
Queers Against Pete, I agree, is a front for Bernie Sanders and Medicare for All, which is a concept un-payable, and if Sanders gets the nomination, it will be a shoo-in for the Orange Conman. The only viable possibility of beating T. is a moderate, able to get votes from more than just progressive lefties. Even though I love those ideas, I don’t think it’s a practical proposal. Seriously, do these anti-Pete queers want perfection? Idealism is fine but it won’t get elected. (It’s about as ludicrous and nonsensical as Gays for Trump).
Cam
It’s always adorable that the same people claiming public healthcare isn’t workable can never answer the question about why every other 1st world nation pretty much has been able to do it and it costs less than what America currently does.
Vince
It’s not only workable but would save us 450 billion and nearly 70,000 lives according to a recent Yale study. The same nitwits that hate obama care say the love affordable healthcare. That’s the stupidity we need to counter this time.
Hussain-TheCanadian
@ Danny
Unpayable?? Ever heard of Canada Danny? It’s right to your north, we surely have figured out a way to not only cover every single Canadian, but we also figured out a way to cover both our immigrant and non Canadian populations too, shocker right?
As for wanting a moderate, isnt that what Hilary was? Remind me how did that go?
You need to start using your critical thinking skills, develop them, stop memorizing and parroting nonsense, we live on a huge planet, and it pays to see what the developed world is doing.
Also health care is queer care, it’s a guy issue and all of you should be fighting for it, you deserve it, your taxes have paid for it many times over already.
andrew.agee
“Medicare For All” is an unworkable joke, as currently outlined.
Not to mention that comparing a nation (and economy) of 38 million Canadians (or the Danes for example) to the strongest economy in the world with a populations of 327 million Americans is like comparing apples to dishwashers.
Speaking of “critical thinking skills” let’s break it down:
*Everyone with universal health care has a Parliamentary form of government, lead by a Prime Minister appointed by the majority, not the voters. There’s also a revolving cast of political parties/interest groups that come and go, unlike our bicameral, 2 party representative democracy.
*What this means that special interest parties like the Greens, the Ultra-Orthodox, UKIP or white-power-nationalist Catholics in Poland, don’t have to rule to pass legislation. As minority parties, they get to play kingmaker, forming ad hoc coalitions, and extorting legislation, to form a majority government.
*This means that various groups can come together to pass, or block vital legislation. (Think how many PMs died over Brexit.) But it’s what would have to happen to pass Medicare For All. I simply don’t see anybody breaking rank and risking their seat to pass that kind of toxic legislation.
*Pros/Cons aside, there’s simply no chance of getting it through both houses and onto his desk. That baby would be strangled in its crib by an army of lobbyists, PACs, Dark Money and vested interest groups ranging from the AMA to Nurses Unions to hospital administrators. They have the sway, they have the money and they can mobilize hundreds of thousands of voters.
*We could just barely get a watered down version of Obamacare passed even when the Dems controlled both houses of Congress + the White House.
*Then there’s the the class warfare pitting Trump’s “Left Behinds” vs moderate/progressive “Elites.” Do you think Joe Lunchbucket is going to want to pay for Lucy Fatass’ health care, not to mention the bomb crater it would blow in our national debt?
*Sanders (and Warren’s) “tax the snot out of the rich” policy to generate revenue nonsense is a pipe dream. We’d have a better chance of legalizing weed than passing this.
*Pete is a social and fiscal realist, as are Mike and Amy. They are much more attuned to the national zeitgeist than Sanders and his supporters. Sanders has never passed any significant legislation on his own, and REAL Dems, not to mention the GOP hate to work with him and his Stalinist Purity Test.
>Let me be the first to say it: Milwaukee 2020 is going to be Chicago 1968 all over again unless the Dems get their collective act together.<
Could the team of Bloomberg and Pete, or Amy or Booker, or Hickenlooper get a reasonable compromise through? My thought is yes, but all of that would be decided post-convention.
Vince
andrew.agee
The compromise would be Medicare for all that want it as one option. The rest would keep their private insurance. That’s Pete’s plan. Once people see it’s effectiveness then it would naturally be expanded.
No doubt it’s going to be a war of the interest groups but the majority of the country now wants this. It’s in the Democratic platform. It will eventually happen. Hopefully the Rethugs will be hurt bad in the 2020 and the Dems will once again be in power.
Cam
“Queers against Pete”
Translation: A bunch of heterosexual Sanders supporters.
Kangol2
I think people who are dismissing the concerns of these radical queer people and claiming they’re straights supporting Sanders are being too reductive.
I’ve read through all of Pete Buttigieg’s stated policy proposals and plans, and it’s clear that while he would represent a refreshing generational change, he is 1) very much in the neoliberal vein of the last two Democratic presidents we had and 2) a bit to the right of where a sizable portion of Americans in his generation are politically.
The radical queer people protesting him are advocating policies that are actually not unreasonable given that we are the richest country on earth and, if we actually had leaders who could figure out how to make such plans possible, do so in a way that ultimately would benefit the vast majority of Americans, not just billionaires and millionaires.
As someone pointed out, Bernie Sanders is technically to the right of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, a conservative politician, in terms of the policies he’s advocating versus the ones that Germany and other Social Democratic states have in place now. Our politics and discourse in the US are so far to the right we cannot even really imagine the center. So criticism of Pete Buttigieg or any of the Democrats isn’t a bad thing, and he is showing that he’s adept enough as a politician to be able to take it in stride. He doesn’t lash out or while like the treasonous Crybaby-in-chief, name-call, or act like a vindictive fool, which is to his credit.
Den
“I think people who are dismissing the concerns of these radical queer people and claiming they’re straights supporting Sanders are being too reductive.”
I think that those objecting to “Queers Against Pete” have a valid fear that these are the same kind of people who will not vote, or who will throw their vote away on a third party if Sanders does not get the nomination.
Getting the Republican party out of power is much more important than the specific policies put forth by candidates right now. And that will only happen if Democratic voters promise to support any nominee, and stop specifically attempting to discredit candidates. I’ll even vote for Bloomberg if he gets the nomination, even though all the media is trying very hard to discredit him even more than they’re trying to discredit sanders.
It is important to remember that there really is no “liberal media”. all the major US print and broadcast networks are either owned by right wingers, or motivated entirely by the bottom line. One can really only trust PBS, NPR, the BBC and maybe the NYT. Everything else must be carefully parsed for biases not necessarily obvious.
Crystix
“He just furthers white supremacy,” Val, a member of Queers Against Pete member, recently told The Red Lettuce, a queer vegan communist online program. “It’s like, you know, spewing out of him, kind of. It’s gross.”
This entire group is garbage. When throwing around serious accusations about being a white supremecist when a literal white supremicist is sitting in office shows theyre just making shit up. The sad part is that it’s totally believable members of the Bernie-Bots organized this. Way to unite the country Bernie! Four more years of OLD STRAIGHT WHITE GUY PRIVILEGE and using division tactics to get elected!
Xarzu
Trump is not a white supremacist. Stop drinking the blue kool-aide
Cam
@Xarzu
Precious, LGBTQ sites have been trolled by the best for years.
1. If you’re going to troll, do better.
2. If you’re going to troll on multiple screenames, try not to post the exact same comment from all of your different accounts.
LOL! Nice try genius.
GorgeousNotGeorge
Not a strong supporter of Pete but this Sanders Supporters and surrogates are really purists. Sanders or no one else. His support among Older people of color is mixed. For Suburban women, his appeal is limited because of the Socialist views (I know he is not a Socialist). And for the person who said Canada can afford it so should the US = 321.2 million pop Canada=35 million.
Attacking Buttgieg shows they are afraid of someone else winning besides Sanders. Let him stand on his own instead of attacking other Candidates including Warren who is still a Progressive (last time I checked). I am afraid OLD WHITE MEN in the WH is over – No Trump, No Sanders, No Bloomberg!
winemaker
Sanders and warren are ‘COMMUNISTS’ pure and simple. Screw this democratic socialist BS. they’re COMMUNISTS and their plans will bankrupt us all About time people read between the lines
Cam
@winemaker
Yelling “Communists” over and over pretty much lets us know that you’re an 80 year old Republican troll. Next why don’t you tell us about the time that movies only cost a nickle.
Rock-N-RollHS
I am part of the group fags against queers!
Toofie
You don’t have to like him. But to actually protest him like he’s a real enemy? Misguided nonsense.
Xarzu
I think disrupting a meeting or fundraiser or rally is much worse than whatever brings you to do such a thing.
Xarzu
I do not see anything wrong with Trump, frankly. I hear he is against trans serving in the military. But if that is the worst thing you can say about him, that is not enough. Serving in the military is not a right. They can forbid someone from serving for any reason they want. The military is not a democracy or a republic. It is not a testing ground for social change or supposed to be fair. Life is not fair. Don’t ask Don’t tell was a Democratic Clinton thing, not a Republican thing. I simply do not understand Pete. He says he is Christian. I would like to give him a a bible lesson. He is a phony.
Cam
Translation: The troll account doesn’t have a problem with bigotry. This logic is the same logic they would use to keep black people out of the military. But I’m sure you don’t see that as a problem either.
Xarzu
Of course we all want a gay president. But is Mayor Pete the gay president we have all been hoping for?
Polaro
Yes.
Xarzu
I think disrupting a meeting or fundraiser or rally is much worse than whatever brings you to do such a thing.
iauajo
Get off this site Russian bot Xarzu
Xarzu
I wish I was. At least I would be getting paid.
Paco
Those Bernie Queers Against Pete need to get their priorities straightened out and take that garbage to every Trump rally instead where it really belongs.
Pete has my vote even if I have to write his name in.
Xarzu
Why is it easier to believe a far fetched conspiracy theory that the people who are against Pete are Bernie supporters rather than the simple truth that Pete is mentally messed up? A gay man who is also a bible believer? PLUH-EESE !! Mayor Pete is just as messed up as Biden. It is just that Mayor Pete is young and cute. Is that all that matters to you?
Cam
@Xarzu
Sweetie, you already trolled the ite and said you didn’t see anything wrong with Trump and that bigotry in the military was ok. Now trying to pretend that you are left….well, all I can say is, please tell Putin to hire some smarter trolls, I think you’ve been licking too much lead paint off the walls in your tiny pre-war Russian apartment.
Vince
@Cam
Thanks for the laugh. Lol
niles
Let me say something to the absolute crazy MFs in the Sanders Campaign. You are alienating all decent people; and your demands that everyone follow your particular beliefs is beyond disgusting. For gay or “queer” people to treat him and others in the community in such a manner is unspeakable. These people are absolute nutcases, and they are just as bad as the Trump fanatics. They are being led straight from the top by this heinous campaign of people whose hatred of the Democratic Party is much greater than the desire to save us from Trump. In fact, they WANT TO LOSE, so they can finally destroy the democrats and finally enact America’s Great Socialist Revolution. What they don’t tell you, is that everything will be destroyed: democracy itself, civil rights, the republicans will totally control the court system, law enforcement, media, you name it. BUT THEY DON”T CARE – it’s all about their egos and strict ideology. God save us and God save our country from these dangerous morons!
Xarzu
I think you want to believe that people against Pete are in the Bernie camp because that is the easy route. I do not see any proof that this is true.
OhNoYouDont
Good god Bernie’s supporters are obnoxious
Felecia
I am confused; what exactly IS ‘straight-passing’…would y’all be happier if Pete flipped a limp wrist while debating the issues..? LGBT folk come in all types, not just stereotypes…and please explain the blatant racism because he’s white, something I know he didn’t choose any more than the rest of Every Living Human Being on Earth did. Mayor Pete has problems with the black community because our neighborhoods here in Indiana that are mostly minority-filled don’t get the funds to repair, maintain, and build NEW buildings and homes for it’s residents. Pete can’t pull the necessary millions out of his ass, yet would do so if at all possible; but a board of Old Rich White People who call themselves ‘trustees’ have the state and county purse-strings closed to anything but their own interests…which does NOT include improvements to minority businesses or housing. Some even have been caught using public funds to re-roof a home or to purchase a new vehicle for themselves; in a diverse neighborhood called Fountain Square within Indianapolis, formerly ‘affordable’ properties that 5 yrs ago cost around $30, 40 grand have had some new paint slapped on, yards trimmed -redneck gentrification, lol- and now sell for $250-300 grand in an attempt to attract what the trustees call ‘the right people’…as in out-of-state-young-white-professionals-who-have-no-idea-they-are-being-ripped-off, lol…this shameful practice is something Pete can’t fight here; no one can. It’s too old, with too much nepotism involved…most of the trustees are blood or marriage-related, fancy THAT…and the last remaining blue-collar properties are all under the same knife these days. Pete, if elected, would try to make programs that don’t allow such blatant nonsense LAW…on a national scale. Totally eclipsing the Old White Farts who think everybody ELSE should leave ‘their’ country. We Hoosiers have been watching Buttigieg from the beginning, way before the rest of America, and PLEASE do not blame the man for a warped system not of his making. Yes, he has small-town experience, but a Big Country dream that definitely includes ALL Americans…and ya gotta start somewhere, right…? I myself am Native American, White American, and a bit of Black American too. I am voting for Mayor Pete not because I am LGBT; but because I have seen him actually give a shit about every citizen here in Indiana, no matter what any said citizen might be. His police force in South Bend basically ignores his Mayor status since they are 98% racist, sexist, and homophobic…the friggin’ chief has refused to return phone calls, and openly also refused to make the officers wear body-cams that Buttigieg knew would curtail bad behavior against minority residents. Give Pete a break, okay…he WILL get things done when every other candidate is an old windbag with one foot in the grave and the other soon to follow, lol….
Terrycloth
I love how the audience shouted petes name to drown out the protesters…then the applause pete got when he said he got a question about his husband and hes excited to answer it….