For those who recall when just entering a gay bar was dangerous, seeing a gay presidential candidate get so far while being mercilessly pilloried was a disorienting experience
The day after Pete Buttigieg won Iowa, the writer Mark Harris, who is married to playwright Tony Kushner, tweeted, “Even if you support someone else, as I do, the fact that a gay man can win a state caucus for President is a welcome milestone.”
Iowa has long been something of an outlier – in 2004 it was among the few Republican controlled states that rejected a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage – but the idea that an openly gay man could win the Democratic caucus there took most Americans by surprise. That it was a milestone, as Harris pointed out, was clear – or should have been. The fact that it needed stating said everything about this strange, emotional, deeply divided campaign.
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