Pete Buttigieg has the best response to Tucker Carlson’s wild “fake gay” conspiracy theory.
Back in September, the conservative political commentator referred to the former US Secretary of Transportation as “the fake gay guy” during an episode of his podcast.
“My gay producer is always like ‘he’s not gay.’ He was with a girl like 20 minutes ago, and like he wants to be the Democratic nominee. It’s like: ‘time for a gay guy!”
However, that wasn’t the only bizarre thing Carlson said in regards to Buttigieg’s sexuality.
Later on in the episode, the 56-year-old added: “I’ve always wanted to interview him. He’s never agreed to an interview, but I’m going to ask him like some very specific questions about gay sex and see if he can even answer. I doubt he even knows. You’re not gay, dude, stop.”
On 1 October, Buttigieg addressed Carlson’s unhinged claims during his appearance on Channel 5 with Andrew Callaghan.
“I mean, in a weird way, I guess it’s progress. I’ve spent a good chunk of my life believing, knowing that being gay would be a career-ender for me,” he said.
“I had two parts of my career when I was in my 20s: Public service, being interested in public office, and being in the military. Both of those things could have ended because I was gay.
Buttigieg went on to say that there was a time when he would have done anything not to be gay, resulting in Callaghan asking if he would have gone to conversion therapy.
“If I thought it would have worked, the state of mind that I was in at a certain time in my life when I was younger, maybe, yeah. Because I thought that reality would just shut down my options. And then I grew older, I matured, and I went to war,” he continued.
“During that employment, I thought, this is insane, to be a grown ass man with no idea what it’s like to be in love. If I get through this deployment ok, I’m going to come home, and I’m going to come out, and if it messes up my career, then so be it. That’s how I live my life.
“So, to now be at a point where a right-wing, whatever you want to call him, personality, his big conspiracy theory is that I’m straight is kind of hilarious. I guess it’s progress?”
Elsewhere in his interview, Buttigieg provided insight into his coming-out experience.
“I was already mayor in South Bend, Indiana and a part of what happens when you get deployed, they tell you to write a letter just in case. I still have it in my desk drawer,” he continued.
“And I’m sitting down to write this letter that’s for my family to open up if I don’t make it, and I’m taking stock of all these great things that have happened in my life. I mean, I’ve become the mayor of this city that I loved. I owned a home and had great friends.
“But this huge part of what most people consider important in their lives just wasn’t there for me because I had figured out long since that I was gay, and I didn’t think I could or should try to date and keep it a secret. So I didn’t have that as part of my life.
Toward the end of his statement, Buttigieg revealed that writing the letter helped him realise that he was tired of hiding his sexuality.
You can watch Buttigieg’s full interview here.