I don’t know if this is what the article said, because I don’t read that garbage and frankly did not think it still existed
Right, like, he’s literally fucking gay and has had to endure all the struggles that came with that, whether he stayed closeted or came out. And he’s being used. Him and Chasten. They are the victims in this facet. One can be a sociopathic pos and still be a victim. We contain multitudes and thinking otherwise is childish. And when I became a man I put away childish things.
And he wasn’t even created in a lab. He was torturing Ay Rabs in the Middle East. He knew where that was leading.
Just gross homophobic and vaguely racist lies. I thought this article was supposed to be a review of Chasten’s book? What does NJR’s review of Pete’s book 4 years ago have to do with a book that is a YA version of Chasten’s (a middle school teacher and now stay-at-home dad) previously-published memoir? It’s not even a political book…it’s targeted to gay kids in places where it’s terrifying to be out of the closet, telling them that it gets better.
Google is free, where she could easily look up that the twins were adopted on 24-hour notice, but she chooses to pander to the average reader of CA by keeping up the insinuation that the Buttigiegs (please note her intentional misuse of their name’s plural) used a surrogate.
If one can’t see how gross this is, I don’t know what to say.
Also, never ever assume who is or is not part of the community.
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ope…that byline
You all know, it’s ok to hate me, hate Pete, and still say that the posted article is pretty fucking gross, right? I promise you won’t lose your online leftist cred.
It is possible to hold both views concurrently…unless homophobia is your jam, of course.
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I sure hate Pete but mostly just found the article uninteresting and dull. I’m sympathetic to the idea that Pete’s public facing life is mostly fake marketing, because, well, that’s true of all politicians to a certain extent and particularly true of the desperately grasping, singularly minded strivers like Mayor Pete. As a Mayor Pete fan you surely find that outlook terribly uncharitable, which it is, but why extend charity to a neoliberal ghoul?
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Maybe because we live in a world where the right wing is trying to smear gay people as groomers, pedophiles, and propagandists who are trying to turn kids gay. And in that world, buying into that narrative by implying that Pete is “cosolaying” his sexuality because it was such a great career/life move for the mayor of freakin’ South Bend Indiana is gross and creates way more net harm in the world than whatever temporary benefit is scored by dunking on a neo lib.
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Maybe because there have existed (and continue to exist) a ton of barriers that prevent gay folks from becoming parents. And because of those barriers, gay folks don’t have a ton of great models for how to represent that status in the public eye. So, some of the things they do might seem a little awkward as they try to decide what parts of heteronormative roles/images they will or will not adopt. Instead of mocking them when a choice seems a little unusual, maybe extend a smidgen of empathy to understand how the decision happened and how difficult it is to navigate these spots while under public scrutiny and pressure to represent an entire class of people?
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Really fantastic post.
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Maybe you’re fortunate enough to not have to wade into the conservative cesspool, but this is the kind of reaction that Mayor Pete got (and that close members of my family and many people in the town I grew up in read on a regular basis)
That is the root of the overwhelming majority of the Pete photo criticism. It comes from the right, not the left. Some members of the left just apparently decided that their dislike of his policies in other areas means that he’s unworthy of defense or any benefit of the doubt in this spot.
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I’m sorry, I can’t read a site like that. There’s enough shit going on in the world that I can’t avoid without inflicting that on myself. But I’m happy to take your word for it.
x posted from the unburying thread I think.
He gets a lot less hate then Trump and all of the high profile Repubs imo, so there’s that.
He gets more hate than most high profile Dems because a) he’s a washout neolib slash conservative in shitlib clothes and b) probably unfairly, there may exist in some circles the assumption that as a gay man he has, unlike most white male politicians, experienced rank and overt prejudice first hand and therefore is expected to empathise more with other groups that also experience prejudice, whereas in fact he has every right to be just as much of a total washout as anyone else, a right which he is exercising to the full.
It’s all a team sport. The fact that a board of mostly white men wont pause and listen to this author is telling.
Even if you end up disagreeing with everything she says you can at least try to understand her perspective.
Maybe she is also fighting for what she thinks is important. Maybe her life experiences led her here.
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Finally read the article, most of the criticisms are unfair in my opinion. Don’t really understand the vitriol toward the author though
I don’t know what I was expecting from American Conservative exactly, but this article was somehow even worse. “procreative licentiousness,” bro what? Surely they can’t blame that on anyone but straight people.
Fair enough if you don’t want to read it. But, if you don’t engage with those kind of media sources, maybe you shouldn’t feel quite as confident in your reads about where the Pete hate is coming from and why some people may be more willing to protect him in this spot than you are.
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I tried just now and the stench of homophobia was so strong I didn’t even get through the second paragraph.
I freely admit, I have trouble understanding the perspective of someone who defends NAMBLA and pedophilia, writes off Matthew Shepherd’s murder as financially motivated (as opposed to homophobia) by implying that he was a drug user/dealer, or that gay marriage is bad, actually.
All of which can easily be found by searching the author’s history.
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