The unprecedented campaign of Pete Buttigieg, with husband and potential first gentleman Chasten Glezman at his side, is shaking up politics and promises to change perceptions of same-sex marriage — and what it means to be a family in the US.
The two are the most visible same-sex couple of the moment, riding a wave of popularity as Buttigieg, the 37-year-old mayor of South Bend, Indiana, seeks the Democratic presidential nomination and the right to challenge US President Donald Trump next year.
Should the improbable become reality, Buttigieg would serve as the US’ first openly gay commander in chief, and his 29-year-old husband of 11 months would become the first-ever US first gentleman.
Photo: AFP
Together they would challenge expectations of what the first couple could or should be.
While that remains a far-off dream 18 months from election day, experts say the pair is already having a substantial cultural effect.
Millions of Americans have seen Buttigieg and his husband in person on the campaign trail or viewed their television interviews.
This week’s Time magazine profile boldly titled “First Family” features a cover photograph of the couple standing outside their home, sleeves rolled up — an unremarkable image capturing a remarkable cultural moment.
“Pete and Chasten are so ... normal and American and relatable,” said Annise Parker, the former mayor of Houston and one of the first openly gay mayors of a major US city.
Due to of heightened media coverage during Buttigieg’s rising star campaign — he was virtually unknown weeks ago, but now polls in the top tier among 21 candidates —
“It’s driving this mainstream middle-American image of a young happily married couple,” said Parker, who now heads Victory Fund, which supports LGBTQ candidates.
“It’s hard to discriminate against someone you can relate to so strongly,” Parker said.
The average American’s position on gay marriage has evolved rapidly, said Indiana University sociology professor Brian Powell, who studies same-sex marriage.
In 2003, his research showed, a traditional husband-wife-children view of family dominated. By 2015, the “inclusionist” ideal prevailed, and marriage equality was the law of the land.
Much of that shift was attributable to television, notably shows like Will and Grace, which helped normalize same-sex households to millions of viewers.
Yet the real-life couple could put even more Americans at ease.
People are “seeing it in a very visible public figure,” Powell said. “That can have a transformational effect.”
Buttigieg came out as gay during his mayoral re-election campaign, and three years after the US Supreme Court struck down state bans on same-sex marriage, he and Glezman tied the knot.
Buttigieg, according to The Atlantic, is “a model of conventional, bourgeois gay domesticity.”
He is a military veteran, a monogamous intellectual by all accounts and quick to show off the couple’s two dogs.
Much has been made of the contrast with the twice-divorced Trump, accused by multiple women of sexual assault or harassment.
“If the public portrayals of the marriages are accurate, then I would say more American families are like the Buttigieg family than they are like the Trump family,” Powell said.
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