On the same day that conservative radio
host Rush Limbaugh died, Chasten Buttigieg, the husband of Pete
Buttigieg, posted a photo of the couple kissing at a Human Rights
Campaign (HRC) campaign event.
Limbaugh, who died from cancer at 70,
had made homophobic comments about the couple when Pete Buttigieg was
a presidential candidate. He is the current secretary of
transportation.
“Okay, how's this going to look,
37-year-old gay guy kissing his husband onstage next to Mr. Man
Donald Trump?” Limbaugh told his radio listeners. “What's going
to happen there? They're got to be saying that despite all the great
progress and despite all the great wokeness and despite all the great
ground that's been covered, America's still not ready to elect a gay
guy kissing his husband on the debate stage [as] president.”
Trump will “have fun” facing off
against Buttigieg, Limbaugh added. Limbaugh later told his audience
that Trump told him to “never apologize” for the comments.
In responding to Limbaugh, Buttigieg
alluded to Limbaugh's three divorces.
“Well, I love my husband. I’m
faithful to my husband. Onstage, we usually just go for a hug, but I
love him very much,” Pete Buttigieg said. “And I’m not going to
take lectures on family values from the likes of Rush Limbaugh.”
In 1990, Limbaugh had a recurring
segment titled “AIDS Update” in which he made jokes about the
people who had died from the disease. The segment was often paired up
with songs such as “I Know I'll Never Love This Way Again” and
“Looking for Love in All the Wrong Places.”
According to The New York Times,
the segment ended after a few weeks and Limbaugh called it regretful
because it was “making fun of people who were dying long, painful
and excruciating deaths.”
Former Congressman Barney Frank, who
won re-election after coming out gay, was a favorite target of
Limbaugh. Limbaugh would play slurping sounds in the background and
the song “My Boy Lollipop” when addressing Frank.
As recently as 2015, Limbaugh blamed
marriage equality for the decline of Christianity in America.