A lot of the younger generation grew up with kids who were out in high school, or in middle school even. So they wouldn’t see that as extraordinary. But does that make you worry about losing perspective on the progress that has been made?

It’s worthy of celebration that they lived their adolescence and young adulthood in a far different culture than I did. It’s what we worked so hard for all these decades. I try talking to them about what it was like growing up in the ’70s. And I never even fantasized or dreamed of getting married, of having kids, of having job protection, of being able to be open and in politics. I never dreamed that I would be anything but fearful and hide. Or the alternative was to move to Greenwich Village or San Francisco.

For people who are not quite there yet, do you think that in order for them to support a gay candidate they need to see something else first, something other than gay? Like small-town mayor or veteran, as is the case with Mr. Buttigieg?

But isn’t that true of any candidate that isn’t a straight white male? The women candidates, the African-American candidates, the Latino candidates, Asian candidates. We all have to prove ourselves as worthy of being elected rather than simply saying, “Oh, I have this difference, so elect me.” You don’t see candidates start off with whatever their diversity is. What they talk about is what their experience is, what they bring to the office.

There’s no question the “first” aspect of Obama’s 2008 campaign motivated people, especially African-Americans, in historic numbers. Do you expect something similar with Mr. Buttigieg or are there not enough people who will think that the first gay president is an equivalently significant milestone?