My mom sent me this article, Mayor Pete and the Queering of the American Soul. It's really interesting to watch this coalescence of faith and values and gay identity in political rhetoric. Obviously, we are reminded of The Lord Is My Shephard and He Knows I'm Gay, but I was also thinking of this in the context of the fight for gay marriage. Buttigieg's whole vibe is this fascinating (and in many ways illegible) melange of progressive-small-town-family-values-Christian-gay-veteran-democratic-capitalism. It's a really interesting mix that we haven't really seen before in mainstream politics, I don't think. We saw today how AIDS, the lesbian baby boom, and other factors spurred the push for gay marriage. Now we have a gay candidate who can truly start to appeal to "family values" rhetoric with his legal husband. I think it's something to be both excited and suspicious about.
And then to the religious/faith point, I think this is an interesting place to question some of the assumptions we make about religion and gayness.
"Secular and nominally religious Americans can be forgiven for their surprise at this trend. Underneath the dominant narrative that equates religion with socially conservative causes, religious institutions have quietly been in productive — if contentious and sometimes violent — dialogue with queerness for decades. From pioneering figures like the civil rights leader and openly queer Episcopal priest Pauli Murray to the New York Fire Department chaplain and Sept. 11 hero Mychal Judge to Debbie Friedman’s indelible mark on Jewish sacred music, queerness has hovered around religion since the beginning of the gay liberation movement of the 1960s."
The "melange of progressive-small-town-family-values-Christian-gay-veteran-democratic-capitalism" you mention makes me wonder whether having so many seemingly distinct facets will help or harm his ability to perform well in the primaries. The facets may help him garner interest and support from diverse sections of the citizenry, which has already appeared to help him generate media coverage. Alternatively, having to pay service to so many narratives may result in underdeveloped, watered down rhetoric that is the result of having to carefully weave together a narrative that does not offend those who identify with each facet.
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