I am so livid right now about the horrible “Mary Pete” article in the New Republic that here I am… writing a blog about structural homophobia… I hope you will read.

The left needs to discuss its homophobia problem that no one seems to want to address and most barely acknowledge exists.

If an article like “Mary Pete” was written about a straight woman and/or a PoC (including vile descriptives about their sex lives), it would never have been published, and if it had, the entire left would be up in arms, it would be reviled on cable news and all of the candidates would have come out to stand against it and stand up for the candidate.

That didn’t happen.

It was published, shockingly. And it had to be pointed out to the editor that vile homophobia is… vile homophobia.

People feel homophobia is not an issue because gays got the right to marry — only four years ago — and people have gay friends and go to gay pride parades, so they feel good about it.

But when the pride parade dies down, gays go back to life in a society where structural homophobia exists. Where you are the “other” or the “token” and you are either appreciated like a clown or a cute puppy or you are tolerated.

There are gays who will disagree with this. It is possible to build a world in NYC where you live in a gay-safe neighborhood, where you surround yourself with mostly gays, and where you have super accepting gay friendly friends.

And then there’s the rest of the world.

A gay person who builds a gay safe space for themselves and loses sight of everyone else’s experience, thus thinking we no longer need to really fight for ourselves, irresponsibly ignores the extremely high rate of teen suicide in gay youth.

Gay youth are 3 times more likely to contemplate suicide and are 5 times more likely to attempt suicide. This is the reality of the world we are living.

And if you are transgender it is even worse — 40% of trans people attempt suicide. 92% before the age of 25.

Each episode of LGBT victimization, such as physical or verbal harassment or abuse, increases the likelihood of self-harming behavior by 2.5 times.

There is the intersectionality of being trans and/or a PoC and/or female which means that you are dealing with horrible homophobia PLUS racism and/or PLUS sexism and/or PLUS transphobia.

There is a battle right now for who can be the most “woke” and there are many people who think it’s “woke” to take down a gay guy because it proves just how “woke” they are. Especially by other gay people. That makes them feel really woke.

Even though they are asleep to the destruction it does to other gays.

Pete and Chasten Buttigieg being on a national stage does enormous good for LGBTQ youth. It doesn’t matter if you agree with Buttigieg or will consider voting for him, but it is irresponsible to ignore what it means for LGBTQ youth to be able to witness it. There are already specific examples of kids who were going to harm themselves who decided not to because of Pete and Chasten entering the national spotlight.

What do you think bullying the first gay Presidential candidate on a national stage signals to LGBTQ youth?

Bullies are usually people who were once bullied. There are many gay people who bully other gays, transferring their pain onto others.

There are many women who felt bullied in the 2016 election with the first female Presidential candidate. Everyone’s record is up for examination, but the misogyny was overwhelming.

There are people whose candidate was bullied in the 2016 election who are now turning around and bullying other candidates. And often the candidate they feel most comfortable bullying is Buttigieg. And sure one can critique someone’s record, but the obsessive way it is done with Buttigieg belies deep seated homophobia.

The LGBT community often fights for the rights of others, but many of our allies think it’s fine to skip over the LGBT community — because they think it’s not really that big a deal, because we got gay marriage and there are gay pride parades and they have gay friends, so it’s solved.

But even on the streets of NY there is gay bashing.

Even on the streets of NY I do not feel comfortable holding the hand of my partner who I have been with for eight years.

If I go to political meetings outside of predominantly gay groups, progressive groups have to be reminded to include LGBTQ as one of the marginalized communities they should be lifting up when looking for candidates to help elect to office.

Only 0.01% of elected officials in this country are LGBTQ. But 10% of people are LGBTQ. That is a huge disparity.

You can see structural homophobia in the fact that people don’t think LGBTQ people really need to be fought for to be in office.

You can see structural homophobia where other communities are prioritized over LGBT, rather than including them as one of the communities that should be elevated.

You see it in candidates “not really being ready” “not electable” “not a strong candidate” and they are not talking about a person’s record. “I just don’t like him,” is another.

You see it in the people not taking time to understand why gay people have made certain choices in order to survive. Why a gay candidate might have spent time “in the establishment” or as “part of the machine” because it was the only way they could survive in an overwhelmingly cis, straight environment. They didn’t have the luxury/privilege of being cis and straight to make any radical choice they wanted.

So yeah let’s get around to the homophobia in relation to Pete Buttigieg:

- Ignoring intersectionality — writing off Pete Buttigieg as a privileged white man ignores intersectionality. Yes Buttigieg is white and a man and has the privilege that comes along with that. He is also gay. And that is far from equal. The erasure of his gayness as something that has not hindered his life in a real way that matters is nonsense. If you stay in safe gay spaces and never take risks outside of that then you don’t have to deal with the homophobia of the rest of the world. But when a gay person — and yes even a gay white male — steps outside of that safe gay space — he comes into the position of having to decide whether to “pretend” to be straight in order to pass so that people don’t see him as “other.” “Should I talk about my partner or not?” Sometimes choosing to hide your partner because you think it’s easier to fit in. But it isn’t easier because secrets eat at you, and you know you don’t fit in and are living a pretend life. And yes it is privilege to have the ability to pretend, but that “privilege” is a hell unto itself inside a person’s mind. Fear of being found out, fear of being rejected, not having the freedom to just talk about your wife and it not being a thing. No one wins here in this who-has-it-worse privilege game. Ignoring the reality of the intersectionality of gay people is structural homophobia.

How much more difficult is intersectionality when you leave NY and go to Indiana? People choose to ignore the reality of this question.

- Filtering everything he has done through an elitist filter so that nothing he has done has any value, or flips the intention of his actions in order to negate them. Not facts, just interpretation.

- Taking his overachievements and deciding that it is a negative to have overachieved. Not understanding what a gay person has to do to survive — when you’re a kid you think the only way you are going to survive your homophobic community and get out is to overachieve to create avenues out of your situation. But this is ignored and filtered through an elitist filter, erasing the experience gay people have to go through in order to survive their circumstances.

- Calling him “little” — do not call gay men “little” — physically belittling language like this is decidedly homophobic.

- “Not gay enough” “too masculine” “conforming/assimilating” — it is homophobic to dictate to others what kind of gay they should be. How they should express themselves. To police who they are. A lot of this comes from the LGBTQ community — and it is still homophobic. Gay people are homophobic too. Self-hating, self-defeating. No one has the right to dictate who anyone else should be or how they should act.

- Saying Buttigieg has a “black problem” over and over again while favoring click bait narratives over in depth analysis of facts. Ignoring that this is a national issue that needs to be dealt with in every corner of our country.

Buttigieg has been working with communities of color for years to address racial inequality in South Bend but the national media won’t cover the “he’s been working on it” story because it doesn’t get clicks. But people do not want to look into the actual facts themselves, not in any deep way, because it does not support their desired narrative. Many people wanted a “reason” to not vote for him because they prioritize other communities over the LGBTQ community. It’s a relief to have a real “reason” and once they found one, why give it up? Buttigieg’s record, like all candidates, is fair game for examination, but refusal to use real facts and full circumstances because people deep down needed a “reason” to not vote for the gay guy is structural homophobia.

If you want to look into the facts you can start with this video: https://twitter.com/kennyedit/status/1145529743179206656

And this list: https://medium.com/…/a-comprehensive-list-of-pete-buttigieg…

But this issue is not just about Buttigieg. This is everywhere in our society. Of who gets hired. Who gets opportunities. Right now our society is trying to address a lack of diversity with women and PoC while skipping over the LGBTQ community, because people don’t think LGBT people are an equal priority.

I am not saying that people should prioritize LGBTQ people over other communities. I am saying they should be prioritized WITH these other communities.

The idea that gay people are good and don’t need help is false. We are being attacked by the current administration daily. In over 30 states you can be fired for being LGBT. The Supreme Court is about to vote in October on whether LGBT people should be able to be fired for being LGBT. We’re not even in the ballpark of equality when a court is still adjudicating whether we have equal rights or not.

The left has an LGBT problem and it’s time we start talking about it.