Pete Buttigieg has walked back his comment made earlier this week that he doesn’t read LGBTQ media because of its constant criticisms of his sexuality. He called his comment “a grumpy moment” before acknowledging both the importance of queer media at this time and that criticisms of his sexuality come from sources other than LGBTQ media.
In a video interview with the Buzzfeed News show “AM2DM,” co-host Alex Berg asked Buttigieg, “When LGBTQ+ journalism is dwindling despite our rights being threatened at higher rates, why come for queer media?”
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“I appreciate the question and the chance to clear this up. Just to be clear: LGBTQ media plays an increasingly important role, especially at a time like this. I had a grumpy moment where I was thinking about some of the coverage that I do get frustrated with that seems to tell people how to be gay. And that’s, to be fair, happening in a lot of different sources and places online and it’s one reason why, as a candidate, it’s healthy just not to read too many clips about yourself to begin with. But I don’t want to take away from the very important work that’s being done in the queer media right now.”
Here is video of Buttigieg’s response to “AM2DM”:
Mayor @petebuttigieg tells @AM2DM that he was having a "grumpy moment" when he criticized LGBTQ media and said his frustration was about coverage that "seems to tell people how to be gay" pic.twitter.com/Daxd9KFADC
— AM2DM by BuzzFeed News (@AM2DM) September 21, 2019
Buttigieg’s initial comments occurred during his interview on “The Clay Cane Show” on the SiriusXM Urban View channel. Cane, who is gay, asked, “I’m sure you’ve heard this before in LGBT circles that more masculine-presenting men have more access. How different would it be if you were quote-unquote, ‘more effeminate?’”
Sounding peeved, Buttigieg answered:
“It’s tough for me to know. I just am what I am, and, you know, there’s going to be a lot of that. That’s why I — I can’t even read the LGBT media anymore, because it’s all, ‘He’s too gay, not gay enough, wrong kind of gay.’ All I know is that life became a lot easier when I just started allowing myself to be myself and I’ll let other people write up whether I’m ‘too this’ or ‘too that.’”
As we pointed out, straight media has repeatedly run articles questioning Buttigieg’s gayness while LGBTQ publications have largely defended the legitimacy of his queer experiences.
