For Mayor Pete is the product of straight white male privilege, plain and simple. Which is why I recommend he stop playing that disingenuous gay card already, cease and desist any and all references to the marriage equality law that he’s taken full advantage of but never put himself on the line for. Could anyone plausibly see the mayor citing the likes of Sylvia Rivera – or even white male Larry Kramer – the way Cory Booker and Kamala Harris can honestly revere the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. and Congressman John Lewis in stump speeches? (Does Mayor Pete even know those queer heroes’ names?) He’s mistaken feeling different from others actually treating you differently – without acknowledging that if you “present” in parallel to the mainstream’s dictates, you’re rewarded accordingly. Mayor Pete is no gay groundbreaker. He’s just another white guy who never struggled with societal forces, only inner ones.
Even worse is the mayor’s appeal to certain “progressives – i.e. white liberals who want to pat themselves on the back for being forward-looking (“Look, Ma, I’m backing a gay dude!”) but in reality are squeamish about supporting a woman or a POC. These folks want to vote for the safe, straight white guy for president without having to admit they want to vote for the safe, straight white guy for president. Lucky for them Mayor Pete fits that bill. His identity isn’t gay, but that of the heteronormative everyman from the midwest. Basically he’s politically correct Biden.
Contrast this with a guy like Andrew Yang – a candidate who acknowledges, but decisively doesn’t play, the “son of immigrants” race card. He’s an Asian-American who is truly “part of” that demographic (though he doesn’t have a choice in the matter since he presents as Asian-American) – something Mayor Pete has never been with regards to the LGBTQ community. Yet Yang, refreshingly, doesn’t pretend to “relate” to the marginalized. Indeed, he’s self-aware enough to know that his experience is one of privilege compared to that of his fellow black and brown citizens.
All this is a long way of saying that, as a genderqueer American who’s always presented as a straight white chick, selfishly embraced my biological sex since it makes for an easier life path than defying society’s gender norms, I could never imagine voting for Mayor Pete. And I most certainly would never try to “feel the pain” of those who don’t have the option of passing. All I can do, really, is to champion that the voices of the truly marginalized be heard.
Image credit: Gary Riggs
