Presidential Candidate Pete Buttigieg 'More Acceptable and More Electable' to Mainstream American, Professor Stein Says

BOSTON GLOBE -- Marc Stein, a historian of gay rights at San Francisco State University, agreed.

“I don’t think it’s an accident that Buttigieg is white, male, cisgender, married and a veteran,” he wrote in an e-mail. “For much of mainstream America, this positions him as more acceptable and more electable than other LGBT people.”

While the dustup underscores the continuing tensions around gay rights on the right, Buttigieg’s candidacy reflects how much the Democratic Party has changed since 1972, when the first openly gay and lesbian delegates attended the Democratic National Convention, Stein said.