Wouldn't it be ironic to have a gay POTUS?

[vlyons]

This discussion thread was locked as off-topic by Omaha Steve (a host of the General Discussion forum).

The KGOP would shit bricks. And there's the gay 1st husband or 1st spouse. All the false evangelical prophets of the far right would preach hell, fire, and brimestone. Yikes, I think they would pray for disaster to strike.

Meanwhile, most Americans would go "ho-hum, twiddle-dee-dee." So far I like what I've seen of Mayor Pete. He hasn't dodged any questions, answered them well with discriminating awareness and aplomb. Hasn't resorted to throwing his competitors under the bus, or accused them of vile crap.

Moslem countries might find it difficult to shake his hand, but that's why we'll have a Sec of State, and a damned decent one, as opposed to the dreadful sycophant one we have now.

Buttigieg is not my top preferred candidate, but I sent him a few bucks anyway.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. Couldn't agree with you more!

He's tops in my book.

[11 Bravo]

23. My dear California Peggy. Once again ...

I find myself on the same page with you. Mayor Pete's got my vote!

[marble falls]

2. It would be ironic to have any sort of competent POTUS and the KGOP would hate whoever that ...

would be.

We do have an amazingly talented bench of competent possible candidates.

[NewJeffCT]

4. agreed

The GOP is going to hate, hate, hate any Democrat that gets into the White House.

Yes, some of the hatred against Obama was due to race, but Republicans would have hated the president if it was Hillary Clinton, John Edwards or any other person with the (D) after their name. The 8 years of Bill Clinton being president were ground zero for irrational and crazed right wing hatred without a cause, as that's when Rush Limbaugh first made his name and when Fox News started as well.

[marble falls]

29. I can't tell you how many Republic businessmen have told me they never in their lives made ...

as much money for eight straight years as they did with Bill Clinton. I don't get why they were so PO'd with Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.

[MineralMan]

3. We may already have had one:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Buchanan

Buchanan had a close and intimate relationship with William Rufus King, an Alabama politician who briefly served as vice president under Franklin Pierce. Buchanan and King lived together in a Washington boardinghouse for many years, from 1834 until King's departure for France in 1844. King referred to the relationship as a "communion",[103] and the two attended social functions together. Contemporaries also noted the closeness. Andrew Jackson called King "Miss Nancy" and prominent Democrat Aaron V. Brown referred to King as Buchanan's "better half", "wife" and "Aunt Fancy" (the last being a 19th-century euphemism for an effeminate man).[105][106][107] Sociologist Loewen noted that "wags" described Buchanan and King as "Siamese twins", that Buchanan late in life wrote a letter acknowledging that he might marry a woman who could accept his "lack of ardent or romantic affection", and also that Buchanan was expelled from his Lancaster church, reportedly for pro-slavery views acquired during the King relationship.[108][109] Catherine Thompson, the wife of cabinet member Jacob Thompson, later noted that "there was something unhealthy in the president's attitude".[103] King became ill in 1853 and died of tuberculosis shortly after Pierce's inauguration, four years before Buchanan became president. Buchanan described him as "among the best, the purest and most consistent public men I have known."[103] Jean Baker's biography of Buchanan notes that his and King's nieces may have destroyed some correspondence between Buchanan and King. She opines that the length and intimacy of their surviving letters (one written by King upon his ambassadorial departure being specifically cited by Loewen) illustrate only "the affection of a special friendship."[110]

It's not really clear, though.

[NewJeffCT]

5. I did not know that one

though, back when I was in high school in the 1980s, there were rumors that George Washington was gay.

[unblock]

7. i don't see how anyone can reasonably say he wasn't gay:

"I am now solitary and alone, having no companion in the house with me. I have gone a-wooing to several gentlemen, but have not succeeded with any one of them. I feel that it is not good for man to be alone; and should not be astonished to find myself married to some old maid who can nurse me when I am sick, provide good dinners for me when I am well, and not expect from me any very ardent or romantic affection.”

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/are-we-ready-for-a-gay-president-well-we-may-have_b_5759e5bae4b052f656ef5ef1


i understand the historical community has yet to be definitive about it, but i don't see how they can honestly continue to cast doubt on the matter. i think it has more to do with avoiding controversy than an honest assessment of the facts.

[MineralMan]

16. I don't know. It probably doesn't matter, really.

He's long dead, so we can't ask him. Interestingly, though, nobody seemed to care all that much.

[unblock]

21. some of the things that happened in past politics can be baffling by today's standards.

the idea that fdr could keep his paralysis hidden is perplexing by today's standards.

where were the tabloids and why didn't they expose this "scoop"?

how is it that jfk's philandering was an open secret in washington but only a quiet rumor everywhere else?


in buchanan's case, i think that era was much more like a what "don't ask, don't tell" hoped to be. no one was bothered by it, but no one talked about it either. or rather, they weren't bothered as long as they could continue to live in a world that pretended that homosexuality didn't exist....

[marylandblue]

28. From what I've read, this sort of arrangement was fairly common.

We even have documents from the Middle Ages where two men entered a sort of civil union and agreed to share assets and expenses and live together. Nobody seemed to care as long as they were discreet.

[unblock]

30. the world has become a much smaller place in many ways.

a lot of the "culture wars" is about homophobes who can no longer deny that homosexuality exists because omg, gay people on tv! gay people in the movies! and they're actually *talking* about being gay! gasp!

they want a wall where all the objects of their hatred and contempt and disrespect exist only outside of their nice white straight christian cocoon so they can go back to pretending that anyone not like themselves exists.

[customerserviceguy]

6. Screw the Muslims that wouldn't shake his hand

Send them a gay Secretary of State, too! And maybe Pete can threaten to toss one of them off of a rooftop, too.

[LuvNewcastle]

15. I agree.

I don't give a damn about what those assholes think.

[customerserviceguy]

19. And if we elect a female President

we're not going to send her over there with a burka, either.

[LuvNewcastle]

20. I would be pissed if that happened.

We need to work on weaning ourselves off their oil, anyway. I'd rather pay higher gas prices than have our President disrespected like that.

[customerserviceguy]

22. We probably produce enough of our own oil these days

It's just a matter of keeping the Sunni-Shia thirteen-hundred year war from screwing over the whole world, that's why we go there.

Or, to be glorified, like Trump did.

[MoonRiver]

8. I would love it!

Even though my first choice is Kamala, I am so impressed with Mayor Pete!

[spinbaby]

18. A Kamala Pete ticket would be awesome

We have such an abundance of wonderful candidates.

[Leith]

9. Why does anyone care if someone else is gay

unless they are looking for a sexual relationship?

I've seen Buttigieg speak (most recently on Bill Maher). He's intelligent, mature, articulate, and thoughtful. He would be a terrific president.

[RANDYWILDMAN]

10. Pete.. I can't pronounce his last name, is awesome

I love that guy, he is bright, very well spoken , whip smart, has a great calm about him. Has actual solutions to real problems for real people, Not the 1% garbage who our government has been serving for far too long.


I don't know that most of the country is ready for it, but if a lowlife like tRump can pretend to be it. Pete from Indiana could do the job and them some.

[Leith]

13. It's easier than it looks

"BOOT-edge-edge"

Some say "Buddha-judge"

Either one is close enough. I think it's why many people say "Mayor Pete."

[sellitman]

11. May the best person win

I personally think Mayor Pete is "The One"

[Hortensis]

12. I don't think a gay nominee for president would be in the interest of

any of us right now, but particularly of LGBTQ Americans.

Half of America's conservatives, and more, were with us in being comfortable with gay marriage, and states were heading that way in a natural evolution, but when SCOTUS imposed it on the nation by fiat all hell broke loose in reaction. Even people who were fine with the rights themselves were angry and went to the polls determined to vote for strongly conservative courts.

In the process they had voted for the candidate of the religious and social right, Trump, who, anxious to keep the support of the Christian right, has been filling government and the courts with religious extremists determined to reverse all gains and reinstitute government-imposed persecution. And they got judicial appointees and state legislatures far more conservative than they would have chosen.

States have been passing laws or sabotaging protections to oppress LGBTQs. Many are passing laws illegal under current upper court rulings, but just waiting for the day they can be wielded like swords. And across the nation phobes have been acting out in many harmful ways, assisted by the removal or ignoring of legal protections. It's not exactly a theoretical problem to people who are being made unwelcome in social situations, ticketed unjustly, having paperwork "lost" and property vandalized, being fired from jobs they've held for years or discouraged from filing discrimination complaints with HR if they want to keep their jobs.

There's a time for everything, and this is emphatically not the time to try to impose a gay president on anxious and angry nation. Remember, the right is half the nation and they vote in bigger numbers than the left does. Poking them at any time is not a wise move, and right now we really need those who want decency on this subject to feel they achieved most of what they needed in 2016.

Never forget, there is a real prospect that we could lose in 2020 and the upper courts given a majority that reversed decades of advances for the foreseeable future.

[Leith]

14. Many echoed that sentiment

when discussing a black president. He was elected anyway and he was arguably the best president of our lifetimes.

Let's not let the prejudice and hatred of some people keep us from achieving the best.

[demmiblue]

17. +1

There seem to be several people pushing this point. I am beginning to wonder if it is projection.

[Hortensis]

27. And the same thing happened and worse. It would have been

accepted by Americans in general. There was a huge reaction among the far right, and they'd still be simmering, but he was elected by a strong majority and was a good, calming president as much as possible. If it were merely up to Americans who were left alone to think their own thoughts.. But we weren't.

Maybe give some thought to what will happen to LGBTQ people if the Republicans keep power. SCOTUS is 5-4 now, with 2 new extreme conservatives joining Thomas, a previous conservative majority who were already waving red flags about danger to separation of church and state, and 2 liberal justices over 80.

The danger of a right-wing takeover of our liberal democracy is scary-real. Everyone needs to understand that before we find ourselves caring about reports of epidemics of suicides, arrests, denial of inheritances and earned benefits, dissolution of marital rights, court-ordered removal of children from their families, and much more.

Imo, those who are not afraid for them, and for us, are not aware.

[Persondem]

25. Well said. +1 ... nt

[Persondem]

24. Yes, it would be fun to see heads explode ... but it won't happen in 2020 or anytime soon. nt

[walkingman]

26. I would love it if for no other reason just to see the sanctimonious religious nuts heads explode.

[Omaha Steve]

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