Member-only story
This Boy Wonder: On Race, Homosexuality, and the Buttigieg Dilemma
As a gay man, I can appreciate what it means for an out gay man to be a real Democratic contender — but as a black man, things are much more complicated.
This essay contains spoilers from James Baldwin’s 1962 novel, Another Country.
1. For months I’ve hesitated to write about Pete Buttigieg because I wasn’t sure how to articulate exactly what I felt. My ambivalence toward him is based on my own racial and sexual identities. I asked myself at one point: Could I, as a gay man, admire Buttigieg and, at the same time, as a black man, feel exasperated and angered by his choices? But after an incident with a group of gay white men in a bathhouse two weekends ago, I better understood what I’ll refer to here as “The Buttigieg Dilemma” and how it affects my relationship with his presidential candidacy.
There is a trapdoor waiting for any black person who attempts to defend Pete Buttigieg, so let me be very clear: I’m not about to fall into it. Because I can’t defend him. I don’t know him. And the truth is, some of his choices as a candidate and as mayor of South Bend appear indefensible. But I can appreciate what his candidacy means to me as a black, gay man — where I feel loyal to him…
