During a recent appearance on The
Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Transportation Secretary Pete
Buttigieg talked about being the first openly gay member of a
presidential cabinet.
Host Stephen Colbert asked Buttigieg
what he was trying to convey in recent remarks at the White House's
LGBT Pride ceremony.
(Related: Biden
LGBT Pride actions include appointing special envoy, signing Pulse
nightclub bill.)
Buttigieg answered that he wanted to
highlight the progress that has been made and the road that lies
ahead for LGBT rights.
“If you look at the 50s, there was a
historical episode called the lavender scare. You couldn't even be a
bookkeeper or an astronomer in the federal government without your
job being at risk if you were gay. And so I wanted to convey a sense
of just how much has changed in a short amount of time but also how
far we have to go.”
“As we speak, in states around the
country, there are politicians who have decided it's good politics to
attack transgender kids,” he said, referring to dozens of state
bills seeking to curtail the rights of transgender youth.
“These kids have the courage to be
who they are and they just want to be accepted and go to the bathroom
like everybody else and play sports like everybody else – and
live.”
“I hope it will prove to not be good
politics to pick on transgender kids when these political attacks and
terrible laws get beaten back. So, that was the other part of my
message,” he said.
Buttigieg, who campaigned against
President Joe Biden for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination,
is the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana.