Tensions flared between 2020 presidential candidates Sen. Amy Klobuchar and former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg at Wednesday night’s Democratic debate.
Reasonable people can see that Klobuchar’s clear disdain for Buttigieg is based on their competition for the same centrist voters and that he has surpassed her in the polls despite having much less experience and far less impressive qualifications than her. Identity-obsessed leftists looking to further fuel their victim narrative, though, view Klobuchar’s contempt for her inexperienced competitor as evidence that she’s actually secretly homophobic.
That was the takeaway of gay journalist Bil Browning, who wrote a scathing, cringeworthy critique for the left-wing website LGBTNation, “Amy Klobuchar may not be blatantly homophobic, but she definitely feels superior to gays.”
Every #gay man has seen the condescending look @AmyKlobuchar always gives @PeteButtigieg. #LGBTQ https://t.co/dUUH5wlKvk
— LGBTQ Nation (@lgbtqnation) February 20, 2020
“But you couldn’t help it, could you? Because in your heart of hearts, you still believe, in spite of your talk of equality and fraternity, you still believe some people are better than others because of the way they make love. Now, think of that for a lifetime.” -Another Country https://t.co/FecYrIetQd
— Bil Browning (@bilerico) February 20, 2020
Here’s how Browning starts the piece:
Klobuchar has a solid record of supporting LGBTQ rights. But the look on her face whenever she attacks out candidate Pete Buttigieg is one that gay men know well. It’s the smug look of heterosexual superiority.
First, besides Browning, who exactly are the gay men asking this question? As far as I’m aware, even most liberal gays aren’t so desperate to see themselves as victims that they’d twist a liberal candidate’s common condescension for an inexperienced competitor into some sort of subconscious homophobic assault.
Browning continues:
Klobuchar’s voting record is not actively anti-LGBTQ, but her constant jabs at Buttigieg as ‘inexperienced’ and suggestions that he is ‘unelectable’ are nothing more than a veiled attack on the historic nature of his campaign. No gay man has ever even run in this primary, much less won delegates and topped a few polls, and it should have stayed that way.
She doesn’t think he’s electable because he’s gay and it shows every time she looks at him. I’m not homophobic, I just don’t think queers can be treated with respect! It’s not me — it’s everyone else!
We know. We’ve seen that look a million times from women just like her.
Of course, the central contention that Klobuchar has demonstrated contempt and disdain for Buttigieg is clearly correct. It’s the leap to charges of “homophobia” that’s an astounding act of victimhood-fueled mental gymnastics.
Perhaps Klobuchar calls Buttigieg “inexperienced” because he’s never held a higher office than a small-city mayor. Maybe she says he’s “unelectable” because he’s green, untested, and lacks qualifications.
As far as sneering and looking down at Buttigieg, it’s hard to see how this has anything to do with his sexuality. Klobuchar has been in the Senate since 2006 and boasts decades of experience as a competent lawmaker in a prominent federal office. Meanwhile, she’s been passed in the polls by Buttigieg, whose achievements as South Bend, Indiana, mayor include the implementation of pet chip scanners and the elimination of some one-way street designations.
There are so many holes in this victimhood narrative that it’s hard to list them all. For one, Browning himself admits that Klobuchar has a pro-gay voting record and long-standing support for gay rights. He would struggle to find even one quote from her saying something homophobic, too, a glaring omission from his LGBTNation screed.
There’s no more evidence supporting the claim that Klobuchar’s criticisms of Buttigieg are “homophobic” than there is suggesting that his derisive comments about her are somehow “sexist.”
And, importantly, there’s evidence that Klobuchar is an angry person who is often rude to lots of different people, including her employees, of all sexualities. There’s no actual reason to think that Buttigieg should be some exception to this rule or that Klobuchar’s hostility toward her clearly less-qualified competitor must have some subconscious, bigoted motive.
But left-wing journalists can’t let pesky facts get in the way of a good victim narrative.
