The Democratic presidential candidates will take the debate stage tonight at the “Power of Our Pride” CNN town hall focused on gay and transgender issues, hosted by the left-wing activist group the Human Rights Campaign. Notably, some candidates like South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg are getting ahead of the game.
On Thursday morning, Buttigieg released a landmark gay and transgender rights platform, titled “Becoming Whole.” In a Washington Blade op-ed unveiling the plan, Buttigieg writes that “To be LGBTQ+ in America today is to enjoy freedoms hard-won by trailblazers who came before and to feel the urgency of an unfinished promise of full equality under the law.” The presidential candidate promises that “When I’m president, I will use the power of the presidency to tear down the walls that have excluded far too many LGBTQ+ people for far too long.”
Like most Democratic discussion of these issues, Buttigieg’s plan is full of hyperbolic rhetoric and alarmingly stupid ideas. for example, Buttigieg endorses the “decriminalization of HIV transmission.” His plan goes into almost zero specifics, but if this is anything like what his fellow presidential candidate Cory Booker said at the last gay rights forum — where he called for the repeal of laws that make non-disclosure of HIV status to sexual partners a crime — then it’s insane.
It should absolutely be illegal to put another person unknowingly at risk of HIV through a sexual encounter. Essentially, by withholding that information, you are robbing the other person of their ability to consent, because they don’t actually know the risks they’re getting themselves into. If Buttigieg can’t recognize that, then he’s displaying some seriously misguided judgment.
The same can be said of Buttigieg’s support for the so-called Equality Act, the landmark gay rights legislation recently passed by House Democrats. His surface-level analysis makes the anti-discrimination law sound noble, but in reality it would crush religious freedom and enact expansive, sweeping regulations that would, among other things, force women to wax a transgender person’s testicles or else face charges of violating human rights. (And yes, that is really a thing, click the link.)
Buttigieg’s plan also peddles in some blatant fearmongering and lies about the Trump administration, like when he claims that “The Trump administration’s State Department created a new requirement that makes it harder for the children born abroad to same-sex parents to be considered citizens.” In fact, this was an Obama-era policy and not at all the act of anti-gay bigotry that critics made it out to be.
And some of Buttigieg’s 18-page proposal is just downright silly, like when he calls for “expanding LGBTQ representation in the National Parks System.” Uh, okay.
Additionally, Buttigieg falls prey to some of the same annoying identity politics that Democrats at large increasingly peddle in, when he includes in his gay policy agenda completely unrelated policies such as “Medicare for All Who Want It” and paid family leave. Just like the “Green New Deal,” a supposed climate change proposal that is actually just a mash-up of social justice leftovers, it’s frustrating that Democrats seem incapable of addressing one issue without making everything into a Trojan horse for the rest of their agenda.
But Buttigieg’s platform includes plenty of good and sensible policy recommendations as well.
He would rescind the Trump administration’s ban on transgender people serving in the military — undoubtedly the right move, as the ban is misguided, unjustified, and discriminatory. Buttigieg would also restore military benefits to gay and transgender veterans who were unfairly discharged on the basis of their identity under the Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy that banned openly gay people from serving and the transgender ban. This is completely warranted and commendable: Anyone brave enough to risk their life for our country and then unfairly targeted for discrimination still ought to receive the same benefits as other veterans.
Additionally, Buttigieg would repeal the archaic ban on sexually active gay and bisexual men donating blood. The decades-old policy is rooted more in fear and stigma over the HIV crisis than any actual medical justification, and Buttigieg is right to call for a more science-based approach. And the mayor’s call to ban so-called “conversion therapy” is well-warranted, as it’s a form of medical malpractice and fraud. His plan to have the Federal Trade Commission label and ban it as such is spot-on.
Furthermore, Buttigieg wants to reform the Prison Rape Elimination Act and take steps toward ending rampant prison rape in our criminal justice system. This issue isn’t talked about much, but widespread sexual violence in our prisons represents a moral crisis, and disproportionately affects gay people.
All in all, no conservative should ever endorse Buttigieg’s entire “Becoming Whole” platform, given the numerous poison pills and radical policies it includes. But it has its virtues, and Republicans should look at the good that’s there, too, and even embrace some of his pro-gay proposals as their own.
