Pete Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Ind., isn’t simply an LGBTQ ally, he’s a member of the LGBTQ community. As only the second openly gay major-party presidential candidate in U.S. history (the first was Republican Fred Karger, in 2012), Buttigieg has put a face on LGBTQ issues for voters. He has made history by being the first out candidate in a national presidential debate, as Karger never made the cut during his run, and by telling his coming-out story on the debate stage. During last week’s debate in Houston, which closed with moderators asking each candidate to tell a story of setbacks and resilience, Buttigieg said, “As a military officer serving under ‘don’t ask, don’t tell,’ and as an elected official in the state of Indiana when Mike Pence was governor, at a certain point, when it came to professional setbacks, I had to wonder whether just acknowledging who I was was going to be the ultimate career-ending professional setback. I came back from the deployment and realized that you only get to live one life. And I was not interested in not knowing what it was like to be in love any longer, so I just came out.” His coming-out happened in 2015, when he was running for a second term as mayor, and it proved to be no liability, as he was reelected easily. He was an LGBTQ advocate even before coming out, as he shepherded an inclusive antidiscrimination ordinance to passage in South Bend early in his tenure as mayor, and he spoke out against the “religious freedom” bill signed into law by Pence a few months before Buttigieg’s coming-out; the measure was widely seen as enabling discrimination, and it was amended to ostensibly prevent that from happening. It should be noted that Buttigieg has had a fraught relationship with some other marginalized communities; for instance, he has been much criticized for demoting a Black police chief. But the mayor has said he is committed to fighting systemic racism.

On LGBTQ rights, Buttigieg has said that as president he will make it a priority to pass the Equality Act, reverse the transgender military ban, and enforce the nondiscrimination provisions of the Affordable Care Act and other federal laws. He has also pledged to combat bullying, protect LGBTQ asylum-seekers, pass safe schools legislation, and champion LGBTQ rights around the world. And Thursday, he released a comprehensive plan to address LGBTQ issues as well as HIV and AIDS.