Homophobia in the voter's booth
05 Dec 2019.

As I sit here recuperating from surgery, I have nothing better to do than troll Facebook and Twitter. Which is making me sicker. Today, I read that poor Pete Buttigieg, the first out gay person to run for President and Alfred E Neuman lookalike, stepped in shit again. First, he was denounced as ‘out of touch’ with black people. Now queer Twits have ganged up on him by unearthing a photo from 2017 that shows him collecting small change for the Salvation Army. God forbid. 

Why do people run for office? I realize its a paying job, but imagine a job in which everything you do comes under scrutiny. A job that requires you to be morally and socially perfect. Most of us would fail miserably. If the tiresome 18 month campaign for President shows us anything, it is that no one is a winner, and that anything from your past can come bite you in the ass. 
It doesn’t help that tireless scold Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez slammed him for sounding like a Republican. (She sounds like a helicopter parent at a raucous birthday party.) Kamala Harris attacked him for saying that gay rights are like civil rights. (Point taken, but discrimination is discrimination, no matter what kind and where it is directed. Isn’t that the whole point of intersectionality?) How can Buttigieg not step in shit when members of his own party are actively shovelling it in his path? 

The black thing is a real issue for Buttigieg, who was called “a lying motherfucker” for insinuating that black youth often fail in school because they don’t see the value of an education. (Buttigieg promptly phoned the ‘journalist’ and they spoke until they agreed on the point.) And it didn’t help that a viral video of supporters dancing to a song called "High Hopes" was endlessly ridiculed on Twitter as being “white” and “old.” He was even pilloried for taking a picture at Berlin’s Holocaust memorial. The man can’t do anything without being attacked. And all the mistakes he made as Mayor of South Bend, particularly with the black community, are coming back to haunt him. 

I don’t actually care about Pete Buttigieg, but I do care about fairness. It’s one thing for people who are running against him to criticize everything he does, but it is quite another when his own demographic - queer Americans - seek to actively undermine him. That Buttigieg receives so little support from queer activists is the most disheartening thing. The things I’ve read written about him are appalling. “Surprised Pete Buttigieg isn’t eating Chick-fil-A in this photo,” wrote one cunt about the Salvation Army picture. “pete bootychug be like trans rights on the streets but salvation army in the sheets” wrote another great wit with limited spelling and grammar skills. With gays like these, who needs enemies?

It should be remembered that both Fords - Rob and Doug - won by running against queer candidates (George Smitherman and Kathleen Wynne) who were tarred for financial scandals that most voters did not understand. But is that really why they lost those elections? Homophobia in the voter’s booth is alive and well, and it is being encouraged by the very people who should know better.