The brother of Pete Buttigieg’s husband said he does not support their marriage.
Rhyan Glezman, a pastor of a Christian church in Michigan, told the Washington Post he was not surprised when his brother Chasten came out.
“I want the best for him,” Glezman said. “I just don’t support the gay lifestyle.”
Chasten Buttigieg, 29, came out the summer after high school graduation. He said he told his family last about his sexuality.
“I remember my mom crying,” he said, “and the first thing she asked me was if I was sick. I think she meant, like, did I have AIDS?”
Buttigieg said he also remembers one of his brothers saying, “No brother of mine…” in reaction to the news.
After his family’s response, Buttigieg packed his bags and left home. He slept on friends’ couches and sometimes slept in his car in the parking lot of the community college he attended.
He said his mother called him after a few months and asked him to come back home.
“And I cried and I went home immediately,” he said.
His parents walked him down the aisle when he married Pete Buttigieg in June 2018. The two met in 2015 via the dating app Hinge.
Pete, the 37-year-old mayor of South Bend, Ind., is one of nearly two dozen Democrats vying for the party’s 2020 presidential nomination.
[Related: Buttigieg’s husband: America ready for ‘authentic,’ gay president]
