Pete Buttigieg Provincetown campaign stop ignites LGBTQ voters: 'It's history in the making'
Presidential hopeful and South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg — who has made history as the first openly gay top-tier presidential candidate — hosted a town hall-style meeting and attended a private fundraiser in Provincetown, Mass., known as one of the gayest ZIP codes in America.
And the importance of the moment was not lost on the many LGBTQ fans who showed up to give him a hero’s welcome.
“In my lifetime — as someone in his 50s who came out at 18 — I never thought I’d see a viable, openly gay presidential candidate,” Jay Coburn, who runs an affordable housing agency in Provincetown, told Yahoo Lifestyle as he waited outside of the event wearing a navy blue “Pete Town 2020” shirt. (Before Buttigieg, there was Fred Karger, who ran as an openly-gay Republican in 2012.)
“It means a lot to me,” Peter, 15, told Yahoo Lifestyle about seeing an openly gay presidential hopeful. He was among 35 teen attendees of an LGBTQ summer sleep-away camp called Camp Lightbulb who sat in reserved front-row seating at the town hall meeting. During his time at the camp, Peter added, “I’ve never felt this accepted in my life.”
It’s something many people notice when they arrive in tiny Provincetown — aka Ptown or, this week, “Pete Town” — on the tip of Cape Cod. It has long been a bohemian outpost for artists, writers, LGBTQ folks and anyone else who’s felt like a misfit, though it’s recently shifted into more of an elite gay getaway (with showrunner Ryan Murphy, a Buttigieg supporter, and MSNBC host Rachel Maddow among its most A-list homeowners). Joe Biden made a money-making campaign stop here in 2012, followed by Hillary Clinton in 2016, both of them bringing a swirl of excitement.
The town was abuzz again on Friday, when many LGBTQ residents and visitors turned out for Buttigieg, who, no matter how far he makes it in the race, has already become a political icon to the many who are excited by the possibility of seeing a gay man as the U.S. commander in chief.
“It’s history in the making,” Beau Babineau, of nearby Truro, said just before Buttigieg took the stage. “And I think it’s a direct reaction to what’s in the White House now.”More