Buttigieg takes shot at social conservatives, describes coming out during Vegas LGBTQ galaFox News, May 12, 2019
Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg took a shot at social conservatives Saturday in Las Vegas as he described the exclusion he experienced after publically coming out as a gay man.
The South Bend, Ind., mayor also spoke of the need to overcome divisions during a swing stop at a gala for an LGBTQ civil rights group. He said that LGBTQ people, women, immigrants, people of color and with disabilities and workers are experiencing a “crisis of belonging in this country.â€
"What every gay person has in common with every excluded person of any kind is knowing what it's like to see a wall between you and the rest of the world and wonder what it's like on the other side," Buttigieg said during his keynote address for the Human Rights Campaign at Caesar’s Palace.
Buttigieg, 37, a former Navy intelligence officer, described coming out while mayor and preparing to deploy to Afghanistan.
"I was seized with the awareness that I could be killed in action at the age of 33, a grown man and an elected official, with no idea what it was like to be in love," he said. "I knew that I had to be who I am."
Buttigieg also took aim at the rhetoric of social conservatives.
"We have allowed conservatives to monopolize the language of freedom," he said. "But we know that freedom isn't just about freedom from, it's about freedom to. Not just freedom from regulation, but freedom to live a life of your choosing."
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