Professor Stein: No Accident That First Serious LGBTQ Presidential Contender is 'Conventional'

USA TODAY -- Buttigieg’s run builds on almost 50 years of LGBTQ political candidates winning, first in local and state elections in the 1970s, then in the U.S. House and multiple recent wins in the U.S. Senate and state governorships, said Marc Stein, a professor of political history at San Francisco State University.

While large portions of the U.S. population will now consider voting for LGBTQ candidates, it’s no accident that the first serious presidential contender is white, male, Midwestern, a veteran, highly educated, married and moderate, Stein said.

“It’s not clear to me that the U.S. public would be prepared to accept and support an openly LGBTQ presidential candidate who was less conventional,” Stein said.