May 3

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Pete Buttigieg & Gay Christians

Vogue magazine is featuring Mayor Pete in its June issue with a photograph by Ethan James Green. There is much that sets this image apart from all the others spreading like wildfire all over the Internet. It’s in black and white. There is no background. Buttigieg is sporting a 5-o’clock shadow. His face is in full profile, set at a 90-degree angle from his torso, and his expression is a determined, but non-threatening frown, as if being photographed by a glamor magazine is something to be endured (because the man’s got better things to do). Even so, the photo strays not too far from his squeaky clean persona. He dresses like a Mormon missionary – no jacket, a white button-down, dark slacks (more likely cotton than wool) and a conservative Brooks Brothers-type silk necktie. Another preppy lifestyle giveaway is the leather strap on his wristwatch (not metal).

Buttigieg is so honest and sincere that it’s difficult to believe he’s a politician. He actually answers the question he is asked, without deflection, and stays on topic. If he doesn’t know the answer, he says so, with a promise to look into it. So thoroughly decent is Mayor Pete that no one could take seriously the recent smear attempt by far-right conspiracy theorist/fraudster Jacob Wohl, who offered cash (and a house, even) to a male college student if he would fabricate sexual assault charges against Buttigieg. Wohl’s light bulb must be pretty dim, since he apparently learned nothing from his similarly failed attempt to discredit Robert Mueller.

Perhaps one of the bravest strategies of Mr. Buttigieg is his takedown of Pence’s hypocrisy on the matter of Christianity. Here we have a young gay man casting serious shade on a so-called paragon of the Christian right. Buttigieg is a self-declared practicing Catholic who does not embrace a “porn-star” involved occupant of the White House. Buttigieg suggests that of the three of them (himself, Pence and Trump), Pete has superior rights to the moral high road.

Then we have Mikah Meyer, a gay Christian lad who is the son of a preacher. After Meyer’s father died from cancer 14 years ago, Mikah decided to do something that would bring people together, as a counter to the divisiveness that plagues our nation. In one continuous journey, he visited all 419 sites administered by the National Park Service, located in all 50 states and U.S. territories. Yes, that meant a trip to Guam and a total of 200,000 miles, most of it spent living in a van. And preaching at churches on most Sundays. More than 100 churches gave financial support, because they approved of the positive news coverage of an openly gay Christian. He completed this trip on Monday of this week, April 29, the anniversary of his father’s death (when Mikah was 19). At most stops (and at the churches where he preached), Meyer posted a photo to his Instagram account while waving a rainbow flag.

Meyer watching the sunset on Buck Island Reef National Monument in Saint Croix, US Virgin Islands, December 2016.

 

Mikah had so many social media followers that a crowd of them arrived on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial Monday to witness his triumph at completing the task. TV cameras captured the poignant moment. Again, we have public crowds clapping and cheering on an openly gay man. 

P.S. If he can find a sponsor, he wants to attend every Nebraska Cornhuskers football game next season to show that gay men love football, too. 

Below: Mikah preaching at an Episcopal church in Maui. 

Note: As any observant viewer can note, Mikah got a lot of mileage out of that green T-shirt, but your blogger's favorite is the photo without it. Just sayin'.

At journey's end, April 29, 2019.