“Mayor Pete” and the Coming Out of American Politics

“My name is Pete Buttigieg. For understandable reasons, better known as Mayor Pete. And lately still better known as the husband of Chasten Buttigieg.” [Applause.] “I get a lot of questions about why I came out when I did. Whether it was designed to serve some purpose. In fact, it was designed to serve a very simple and private purpose. I wanted to start dating.”

Mayor Pete, a highly moving, unveiling of everyone’s favorite queer presidential candidate, which debuted worldwide on Amazon Prime. This is the latest of the many offerings produced and/or directed by Jesse Moss, which include the acclaimed Boys State (2020), Gay Chorus Deep South (2019), Extreme Civil War Reenactors (2012), and Speedo (2003), which sadly is not about the bathing suit.

So why is Moss, a charming heterosexual, so gay friendly? He was born in San Francisco, went to college there, and his father “who’s an epidemiologist, was working at UCSF and SF General sort of at the beginning of the AIDS epidemic. So I sort of lived that experience with him, living part of my life in the Castro and part of my life with watching him in the AIDS world . . and that was the backdrop of my life . . . . I don’t know what that means in terms of the choices I’ve made . . . but…