You can be forgiven for thinking the left’s fetish over “intersectionality”—the deliberate attempt to keep all designated victim groups in good standing with one another through a unified matrix of oppression—resembles a Bingo game run amok because no one ever actually wins a round. The best example right now are the identitarians attacking Pete Buttigieg because . . . he’s not gay enough, or something.
The New Yorker this week brings us “The Queer Opposition to Pete Buttigieg, Explained.” I really had to wonder when reading it whether it was another Andy Borowitz parody. Apparently the problem with Pete is that he simply wasn’t (and isn’t) militant enough on behalf of LGBT identity:
The notion that some of us think Buttigieg is not gay enough has an identifiable relationship to the facts, which are that, for the purposes of this discussion, people who grew up queer in this country fall into two distinct categories of experience. . .
Oh great. Now we have to add still more lines to our intersectionality matrix to distinguish and calibrate kinds or degrees of queerness.
The story directs us to this Open Letter from “Queers Against Pete”:
Some have touted former South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg’s openly gay identity as proof of progress in our politics. However, being gay is not enough to earn the support of LGBTQIA communities.
We cannot in good conscience allow Mayor Pete to become the nominee without demanding that he address the needs and concerns of the broader Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex, and Asexual (LGBTQIA) communities. While many see different issues in silos, we are clear that LGBTQIA people are directly and disproportionately impacted by police violence, incarceration, unaffordable healthcare, homelessness, deportation, and economic inequality among other things.
Mayor Pete is leaning on the support and actively courting the LGBTQIA community, but has shown time and time again that he is out of touch, not fit to be President of the United States, and simply falls short.
There follows a list of specifics, several of which have nothing to do with sexual orientation or gender identity, but are simply key items from the socialist wish-list. Where’d I put down my popcorn?
Chaser, from AP: “Buttigieg’s Rocky Record on Race Gets a Closer Look.”
Buttigieg, who spent eight years as mayor of South Bend, Indiana, has tripped up in recent days as he was grilled about his record, including the racial disparity in marijuana arrests in South Bend and decisions that led to him having no African American leaders in his administration during a crucial stretch of his tenure in a city where more than a quarter of residents are black. . .
An analysis by the AP found that more than three-quarters of the people Buttigieg hired were white, even though South Bend’s population is 53% non-Hispanic white, and more than one-quarter black.
Miscellaneous note: This ought to finish off Bloomberg with the left. Only a monster would wish Henry Kissinger a happy birthday.
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