Can a gay man win the us presidency

Instagram: Chasten Buttigieg. Among lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender voters, 86% cast their ballots for Vice President Kamala Harris, while 13% voted for Trump, according to NBC News exit polls. By Victor Melamed Following recent reports that Pete Buttigieg has emerged as the top Democratic presidential pick in a new poll, the question of an openly gay man being elected president in the U.S.

is more relevant than ever. In , he came out as a gay man in a letter to his local newspaper. Actress and lifestyle blogger Gwyneth Paltrow is hosting a fundraiser for him, as are a slew of gay Hollywood A-listers. His parents worked as professors at Harvard University and Mr Buttigieg made his own pilgrimage to the east coast in his 20s.

In , he became America's youngest mayor at age 29, after winning in a landslide election in his hometown of South Bend, Indiana. Or at least he was. As the media drives more and more buzz about Mr Buttigieg, he still has to clear quite a few hurdles to clinch the nomination — let alone the presidency.

Rupert Murdoch's son, James, was among the wealthy supporters who wrote Mr Buttigieg a cheque. If Mr Buttigieg was to be elected, he'd be the first to go from mayor to president — and the Mayor of a town roughly the size of Ballarat to boot. Topic: US Elections. He went from polling at less than 1 per cent in February to hovering around 10 per cent in late April.

It makes me no better or worse at handling a spreadsheet, a rifle, a committee meeting or a hiring decision," he wrote. He was lauded for taking seven months of leave from his mayoral role to serve in the military in Afghanistan, and earned the Joint Service Commendation medal.

Pete Buttigieg served for seven months in Afghanistan as a lieutenant in the Navy Reserve. He is not Donald Trump, for one thing. He is generating intense online search interest and attracting rally crowds so large that they reportedly throw him off his stump speech.

One of a bloated and still swelling field of democratic contenders, Mr Buttigieg offers bored journalists a fresh face and a new name. For reference, Joe Biden has consistently held the top spot around 29 per cent. By comparison, in Australia same-sex marriage was established by an act of Parliament, which provided it with immense political legitimacy.

He would be the youngest president and the first millennial, stepping into the office at age Oh, and did we mention he's also the underdog? Pete Buttigieg and his husband Chasten at a rally to announce his candidacy in April Reuters: John Gress. Should Buttigieg win the nomination, there will ultimately be a reckoning with the American people on the question of whether they are ready to embrace this man as their president.

Twitter: Pete Buttigieg. Five months after he came out, he was re-elected for a second term with 80 per cent of the vote. Polls commissioned by Politico and published in October suggested half of American voters said they were personally ready for a gay or lesbian president, but were divided as to whether the country.

The media's fascination with Mr Buttigieg has, in turn, fuelled support for his candidacy. Two state polls have seen Mr Buttigieg creep up into third. Pete Buttigieg is 37 years old and the mayor of a town the size of Ballarat. Pete Buttigieg is exactly who US political reporters want to write about.

And Mr Buttigieg is spinning all that excitement into fundraising dollars. He returned home with trophies like a Rhodes Scholarship and a "global business consultant" line on his resume. Despite his accomplishments, plenty of people say he is too young to take on the big office.

In other words, the long shot is looking more and more like a viable contender. Mr Buttigieg lives in South Bend, Indiana, one of the heartland's swing regions where the election will be won or lost, but he speaks the language of the coastal elites.