Tell me again how we made it and aren’t a minority group that’s faced adversity. I must’ve missed that.
The Blue checks and the pundits have a new narrative. Let’s just lump Pete Buttigieg in with Beto, Biden & Bernie. Calling him another white guy while COMPETELY ignoring that he’s LGBTQ+. Not exactly a pass go! Collect $200 card in american society, let alone politics.
At the risk of sounding redundant. This is me, yet again going off on the whole Pete is just another white guy thing. But seeing as how I apparently didn’t drive my point home the last time. I thought I’d try a different tact. Let’s say I live in Kokomo Indiana and I work at a gas station. I’ve worked there for about 10 years with no problems. Hell, I’ve made it manager. Then the owner walks in and he’s decided to terminate my employment. If he fired me because I’m brown, I could drag him into court and sue the pants off him. This is because of federal laws that are written to protect people like me. In this case, non-white people like me. But let’s say the owner of that gas station didn’t fire me because I’m brown. He fired me because he looked at my Instagram and saw that vacation I went on last weekend. I went there with my fiancé who happens to be another man. There’s nothing I can do about it. Because in Indiana, I can be fired for being LGBTQ+. Just so you know, it’s not just Indiana. In about half of the United States you can be fired or outright denied employment for being gay. This is currently being taken up by the supreme court, but with a conservative majority we’re all crossing our fingers hoping that Roberts takes up the mantle of swing voter left by Justice Stevens.
If your reading this and thought that the LGBTQ community got our rights and equality has been gained with marriage and the ability to serve in the military, don’t feel to bad. 80% of Americans thought that. You’d be horribly wrong, but you wouldn’t be the only one. In fact, there are 30 states where you can be legally discriminated against for being LGBTQ+ for more than just employment. There’s a handy interactive map from the Beyond I do campaign in case you’re wondering if your state can fuck you over. For instance, in Pennsylvania you can be fired or denied a promotion, evicted from your home/denied housing, denied service at public establishments, denied medical treatment, or even kicked out of restaurants or businesses. Yeah, that gay wedding cake thing is a lot more pervasive than you think. No RFRA needed there. LGBTQ+ means the right to commerce is optional in most states. Do you have an LGBTQ friendly job in PA? Make sure you read the fine print because you may not be applicable to the family leave act if you and your partner have a kid. But there’s good news if you call Pennsylvania your home. It means you’re not one of the poor bastards in Alabama. And hey, if you’re in Michigan, things are looking up as they want to allow LGBTQ+ couples to be able to adopt. Wait, did you think this wasn’t an issue? Silly city mouse in a blue state. Being LGBTQ in America and trying to have a family is a pain in the ass on a state level and on a federal level. In fact, Just to save you a lot of time reading and me a lot of time typing, allow me to TLDR this down to don’t be a fag, a dyke or even a little queer outside of Colorado, Hawaii, California, Oregon, Washington, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Iowa. Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, Maryland, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Vermont or D.C. Because in the rest of the United States, you’re fucked if you fuck someone of the same sex or if you’re transgendered. Even now the rights we’ve gained are being eroded away as quickly as we got them. With the transgender ban that Trump has put in place, you’d have to be damned fool to assume that it will end there. Banning Transgendered American G.I’s smacks of testing the waters for bringing back don’t ask, don’t tell in addition to being a shitty human being.
Which leads me back to the point of this rant. When the hell did we make it in this country so that being LGBTQ+ isn’t a thing? Did I miss something? Lawrence V Texas was decided in 2003. If my right to fuck was a human, it wouldn’t be allowed to drive without a licensed adult over the age of 18 in the car with it. I have a god daughter that can’t ride a bike without training wheels but she’s older than my right to marry someone of the same sex or serve in the military. So, when I hear someone describe Pete Buttigieg as just another white guy. I want to rip what little hair I have out of my head. Because being a cis-gendered white guy doesn’t make being gay in America any easier. See Harvey Milk, Mathew Shepard or Tyler Clementi. But this campaign season, it seems you can’t just be gay. Nope, you need to be a transgendered lesbian of color just to have the fact that you’re LGBTQ be acknowledged as a point of adversity. Because a few people in our own community and a lot of “progressive/liberal” people seem to think that A: we’ve always had equal rights, B: we have all the rights we need and scarily that we’re either not a minority group or that only some of us are deserving of minority status. It finally got to the point where I had to point out on twitter that there are 6 women and 6 people of color running for president. There’s only ONE person in the whole field of candidates that is openly LGBTQ+. I don’t expect special treatment for Pete but if I see another pundit on TV or hear another host on a podcast refer to him as another one of the white guys with a B name, I will go insane and I will take the talking head that said it with me. It takes a lot to run for any office when you’re LGBTQ+. Which is probably why we don’t have that many in any office. How many openly LGBTQ+ can you think of that have held an elected office? Not even just currently serving. I’m mean between now and the past 50 years, name at least 5? How many LGBTQ governors can you name? Not including Pete Buttigieg, can you name 3 openly LGBTQ+ mayors? Name 3 LGBTQ+ senators & or congress members? I’m not even going to pretend to sit here and wait for you to scratch the back of your mind for those names. Nor am I going to post links answering my own questions. Now your ass has homework.
Let’s do a thought exercise: If Elizabeth Warren or Amy Klobuchar was the only woman running for president and she was being dismissed as just another white person. Do you think it would be tolerated? Do you think the blue check SJW crowd on twitter wouldn’t be flipping out? How about if Andrew Yang or Cory Booker were the only people of color but they were being minimized to just being men? Not being men of color that have likely in their lives faced adversity. Just men! In both circumstances ignoring that their life experiences include that of being people of color or women would be insulting. But it’s ok to do it with Pete. Why? There’s a very cynical side to me that wants to say there are those on the left that loves LGBTQ+ people when we’re props that can be used for virtue signaling. But the moment 1 of us step up to the plate, that might be a step to far for their taste. Maybe there’s a bit of incidental or intentional ignorance on their part. Maybe it’s because one of our greatest strengths, being a group that can be found across multiple ethnic groups also means that we’re a group that doesn’t have the benefit of continuity. Our LGBT mentors aren’t familial elders. In my generations case (Somewhere between Gen-X and Millennial) it’s TV and movies. To be honest, I genuinely don’t give 2 shits. Pete’s not running as the gay candidate. He a candidate that happens to be gay. I would however expect him to get the same amount of respect as a woman or a person of color to make it this far as a presidential candidate. Because in my lifetime, a president that happened to be gay was at best a joke on the Simpsons. Whether we have our first gay president, our first woman president, our first Asian president or our first yelling bean pole on a table for president. I will be proud and happy. But let’s not erase a part of who someone is. Furthermore, don’t think that because Pete is a white guy that it makes doing so O.K. somehow. If anything, it makes it more terrifying speaking as a POC myself. Because if you can strip minority status from him???
But in the spirit of #BeLikePete, I get that this is a diverse field and for the most part on paper, all these candidates are alike. They share 80% — 90% of the same policy positions. But everyone wants one person. But could we not beat each other over the head with the Identity politics stick? Could we talk up our candidates. It’s called being a supporter, not an attack dog. You want to debate who’s better on policy, I’m down. You want to talk up the importance of having a woman or a person of color as president, go right on ahead. I’ll be as happy for either of them as I would be seeing an LGBTQ+ POTUS. But try to assume that the people that like Pete, like him for his ideas, his temperament, his back story and his approach. Not because he’s white or a guy. The same way I assume people don’t support Harris (my second choice), Warren (Tied with Harris), or Gillibrand because they’re women or Castro (my third choice), Booker or Yang because their men of color. That only the most narrow minded of people support or oppose someone based on gender, ethnicity or orientation. And TRY to acknowledge being gay in America, while it’s better than in most countries, isn’t easy regardless of skin color. I can’t speak for white people as I’m a mutt and damn proud of it. But I get the feeling the white card, doesn’t mitigate ANYTHING I talked about above. Let alone anything I didn’t get to. Here’s how you know white privilege doesn’t apply when you’re gay. If you can’t even kiss your loved one without it being a cause for uproar or when dogmatic public figures denounce your existence, your white card, may as well be an expired bus pass.
