The LGBTQ Victory Fund, a group dedicated to electing LGBTQ candidates, will become the first national organization to endorse Pete Buttigieg’s presidential campaign Friday.

But the announcement, made on the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall riot that gave rise to the gay-rights movement, came because the Indiana Democrat has shown he’s more than just the openly-gay candidate, said Victory Fund president Annise Parker.

After Buttigieg’s status as the first person in a same-sex marriage to run for president initially helped draw media attention to the unknown mayor of a small city, he used that opportunity to show he’s a multi-faceted candidate who delivers thoughtful answers and has nuanced public policy views, Parker said.

“It opened the door,” she said. “But he walked through the door.”

Despite the early buzz, the Victory Fund waited to officially get behind Buttigieg until he showed he deserved to be on Thursday’s Democratic debate stage. (The group, for example, did not back the 2012 candidacy of Republican Fred Karger, the first openly gay presidential hopeful from a major party.)

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Buttigieg ranks among the better polling candidates in a field of about two dozen Democrats, though behind poll leaders Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders.

The Victory Fund's board unanimously voted several weeks ago to endorse his candidacy but planned to make the announcement Friday at a World Pride campaign event in New York.

Even before that point, however, the group helped Buttigieg raise his profile and introduce him to donors.

His April speech to a Victory Fund event was broadcast live and generated national headlines for his personal remarks about how he struggled to come to terms with his sexuality as a youth and how his same-sex marriage has brought him closer to God.

The LGBTQ community has already provided a significant fundraising boost to Buttigieg, even if some donors are also giving to other candidates.

"It takes a little pressure off potential backers," Buttigieg told USA TODAY earlier this year, when the pitch is "we recognize that it will take a little time to close the deal on who your preferred nominee is going to be. But can we all agree that you want to see somebody like me on that debate stage?"

Parker estimated that Victory Fund supporters have already contributed hundreds of thousands of dollars to Buttigieg.

“But we’re just a small fraction of the support that he has across the country,” she said.

Now that Victory Fund will officially backed Buttigieg, the group will formally activate its donor network and help with voter engagement.

The Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest gay rights organization which evaluates candidates based on their policy positions, has praised several of the Democratic hopefuls. The group’s educational arm will co-host a forum of the candidates this fall.

Parker said that all the Democratic candidates are “good to excellent” on issues important to the LGBTQ community. But Buttigieg’s presence in the campaign, “keeps those issues relevant.” She noted that only 11 years ago, all the leading presidential candidates form both parties opposed same-sex marriage.

When Buttigieg spoke at a Human Rights Campaign dinner in May, however, he warned about the dangers of “identity politics.”

Buttigieg, who has struggled to draw support from voters of color, said that what every gay person has in common with “every excluded person of any kind” is knowing what it’s like to be on the outside looking in.

“We're told we need to choose between supporting an auto worker and supporting a trans women of color,” he said, “without stopping to think about the fact that sometimes the auto worker is a trans woman of color and she definitely needs all the support that she can get."

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