The Presidential Candidate Pete Buttigieg on Coming Out: “I Realized I Couldn’t Go On Like That Forever”

The Presidential Candidate Pete Buttigieg on Coming Out: “I Realized I Couldn’t Go On Like That Forever”

During an exit interview with President Barack Obama in November, 2016, just weeks after the election, David Remnick asked who would be the leaders of the Democratic Party and the contenders to oppose Trump in 2020. Obama mentioned people like Kamala Harris, of California, and Tim Kaine, of Virginia, along with a very surprising figure: Pete Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, who was only thirty-five at the time. In recent weeks, Buttigieg has been raising his profile dramatically, and raising money at a surprising clip, considering that he lacks the national profile of a senator or a governor. In a huge field of candidates, the mayor stands out. He’s a Navy veteran, and was born and raised in South Bend, so he brings heartland credibility to his campaign. But he’s also the youngest candidate in the field, and the first openly gay person with a real shot at the nomination. Buttigieg had not yet come out when he took office and when he joined the Navy Reserves, but deployment in Afghanistan changed his perspective. “I realized I couldn’t go on like that forever. . . . Something about that really clarified my awareness of the extent to which you only get to live one life and be one person,” Buttigieg tells Remnick. “Part of it was the exposure to danger,” he notes, but there was more to it: “I began to feel a little bit humiliated about the idea that my life could come to an end and I could be a visible public official and a grown man and a homeowner and have no idea what it was like to be in love.”

Episoder(1020)

Anna Wintour as Vogue Icon

Anna Wintour as Vogue Icon

Anna Wintour graces the cover of Vogue’s May issue alongside her theatrical double: Meryl Streep in the role of Miranda Priestly, from “The Devil Wears Prada,” whose much-anticipated sequel comes out ...

14 Apr 38min

Sam Altman’s Trust Issues at OpenAI

Sam Altman’s Trust Issues at OpenAI

At the end of February, OpenAI’s C.E.O., Sam Altman, made headlines by swiftly cutting a deal with the Pentagon for his company to replace Anthropic, which had balked at the Trump Administration’s bid...

10 Apr 49min

Pick Three: Spring Sports News

Pick Three: Spring Sports News

The New Yorker staff writer Louisa Thomas, who writes the Sporting Scene column, talks with David Remnick about the biggest basketball stories this season: how LeBron James embraced a new late-career ...

7 Apr 14min

How Donald Trump’s War on Iran Helps Vladimir Putin’s War on Ukraine

How Donald Trump’s War on Iran Helps Vladimir Putin’s War on Ukraine

In 2021, when Olga Rudenko and other journalists launched the English-language news outlet the Kyiv Independent, they were committed to making a publication that wouldn’t face political pressure from ...

3 Apr 36min

A Former Federal Prosecutor on Why He Quit Donald Trump’s Department of Justice

A Former Federal Prosecutor on Why He Quit Donald Trump’s Department of Justice

Thousands of federal prosecutors have been fired or have resigned from their roles since Pam Bondi took over as Attorney General. She has made no secret of weaponizing the Justice Department to pursue...

31 Mar 22min

John Lithgow on the Controversial Authors Roald Dahl and J. K. Rowling

John Lithgow on the Controversial Authors Roald Dahl and J. K. Rowling

The new play “Giant,” on Broadway, dramatizes the scandal around Roald Dahl, the beloved children’s-book author who, in the nineteen-eighties, began making antisemitic statements and invoking stereoty...

27 Mar 28min

Julio Torres Makes Everything Funny—Including Color Theory

Julio Torres Makes Everything Funny—Including Color Theory

Julio Torres got his big break as a writer on “Saturday Night Live,” and went on to make the cult favorites “Los Espookys” and “Fantasmas” for HBO. He also wrote and directed the film “Problemista,” a...

24 Mar 18min

Is Cuba Trump’s Next Target?

Is Cuba Trump’s Next Target?

The staff writer Jon Lee Anderson has reported from Cuba for many years, and recently wrote about the deteriorating economic conditions on the island. His newest piece for the magazine dives into the ...

20 Mar 33min

Populært innen Politikk og nyheter

giver-og-gjengen-vg
aftenpodden
forklart
popradet
aftenpodden-usa
stopp-verden
fotballpodden-2
det-store-bildet
nokon-ma-ga
rss-gukild-johaug
lydartikler-fra-aftenposten
dine-penger-pengeradet
hanna-de-heldige
rss-ness
rss-utenrikskomiteen-med-bogen-og-grasvik
aftenbla-bla
rss-penger-polser-og-politikk
chit-chat-med-helle
frokostshowet-pa-p5
bt-dokumentar-2