March 18

Secret lovers:

Randolph Scott & Cary Grant

Dudes in denim:

Gay Man to Participate

In Presidential Debate

The lead story on Saturday’s edition of Towleroad.com says it all:

“For the first time in history, an openly gay man will participate in a Democratic party presidential debate.”

South Bend (Indiana) Mayor Pete Buttigieg announced on Saturday morning that he had reached the 65,000* individual donor goal which qualifies him to be invited to the first DNC debate (June 2019) before the 2020 election.

*Actually 76,025 as of Saturday morning, March 16, 2019

Buttigieg is competing for the Democratic presidential nomination in the 2020 national election. If successful, he would be the first openly gay president, as well as the youngest -- 39 on inauguration day 2021.

Mayor Pete, as he likes to be called, considering that tongue stopping last name ("BUDDA-judge" is only an approximation), turned in a star performance March 10, 2019, on a live CNN Town Hall held in Austin, TX. If you have not listened to this broadcast, see the YouTube link below. Your blogger was born (and continues to live) in the Washington DC suburbs, so I have been saturated with politics my entire life, yet I have never heard a politician speak so calmly, intelligently and eloquently, with a quiet determination and assurance. He answers every question! No deflections! He mentions solutions and policies that need to be explored, all delivered with a refreshing candor and vision. I’m still pinching myself. Consider it your civic duty to listen to the entire broadcast of 43 minutes.

This man is only 37 (born January 19, 1982), openly gay (married Chasten Glezman in June 2018, photo below), informed and a master of eloquence. A Harvard graduate (BA) and a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford (MA), where he received a “first” in economics. Not to mention a veteran of the war in Afghanistan; he remains a lieutenant in the Naval Reserve. 

Mayor Pete speaks English, Arabic, Dari, Spanish, Norwegian, French, Italian and Maltese (his father emigrated from Malta, where Buttigieg is a common name). When he ran for reelection for mayor as an out gay man in 2015, he won with more than 80% of the vote. In red state Indiana. His voice needs to be heard.

Buttigieg upon his return from deployment in Afghanistan:

P.S.: Interested in learning more about Mayor Pete? He has a new book out, a memoir -- Shortest Way Home: One Mayor’s Challenge and a Model for America’s Future (pub. Feb. 12, 2019). The Guardian (British daily newspaper) stated that Buttigieg “has written the best political autobiography since Barack Obama”. An excerpt:

(Buttigieg met his husband online, and their first date included a visit to the South Bend Cubs. They made it to the sixth inning before they ditched the game for a walk by the river.)

“I felt the slight brushing of his hand coming closer to mine,” he writes, “and I took hold of it. Nothing in my life, from shaking hands with a president to experiencing my first rocket attack, matched the thrill of holding Chasten’s hand for the first time. I was electrified. We got back to the car just as the post-game fireworks began, and as the explosions and lit colors unfolded over us, he went in for a kiss … It only took a few weeks for me to acknowledge the obvious: I was in love.”

P.S. Did I mention that Mayor Pete is a pianist? His grandmother was a piano teacher, and his family drove him to great teachers for piano lessons during his student days, but sometime during high school he gave it up for rock guitar. Once he was mayor of South Bend, his mother arranged for a donated grand piano, without a home and in serious need of refurbishment, to be delivered to his living room. In a stunt to show support for the arts, he agreed to learn a piano concerto, Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue, for a performance six months hence with the local symphony orchestra. He pulled off a credible performance from memory to a packed, cheering house of thousands. Honestly, I think this man could do anything he sets his mind to.