(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Pete Buttigieg wonders why Speaker "I'm with Jesus" Johnson is obsessed with gays [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2023-12-02 Grown men — at least the ones I know — do not talk about sex or sexual orientation as much as the stereotype would have you believe. This relative silence on the subject has been my experience with both my straight and gay friends, except for one of my gay mates. He offers quite a lot of ribald double-entendre. And, during the holidays, posts pictures of buff 20-somethings decorating Christmas trees in their form-fitting underwear — proving that there is always one in the crowd. Another exception to this generally low level of sexual discussion are conservative evangelicals — as Pete Buttigieg pointed out during an appearance on CNN's "Erin Burnett OutFront." During the interview, the eponymous host asked the Transportation Secretary about The Revivalist Manifesto: How Patriots Can Win the Next American Era, a book by a Louisiana-based conservative opinionator, Scott McCay. Burnett started with a quote from the author, who has been called a ‘dear friend’ by House Speaker Mike Johnson, before wondering why McCay was so infatuated with other people’s innate nature. Burnett (quoting the book): “Nobody in the administration knows anything about how transportation and logistics work, something else that was made unmistakably obvious in the summer on Gay Mayor Peter Buttigieg's watch.” Burnett (talking to Buttigieg): What do you think this obsession is over you and your sexual orientation?” Buttigieg replied: “It seems like they can't think about anything else. There's no discussion about what we actually did.” Secretary Pete then offered statistics that gainsaid McCay’s claim of incompetence before making an obvious point: "You have somebody who has been taken seriously by the Speaker of the House of the United States suggesting that the reason that we had supply chain problems in the rebound from COVID wasn't because of the factories in China shutting down and then sending their ships here all at once — it was because the Secretary of Transportation is married to a guy and not to a woman. They can’t seem to let go of this.” Buttigieg's evidence that Johnson takes McCay seriously is that he wrote the forward to McCay's book. Burnett then goes on to quote passages. “Buttigieg is a rather queer choice for Transportation Secretary. Not just because he's a member of the LGBTQ community, and obnoxiously so.” “Buttigieg ran on the fact he is openly and obnoxiously gay — the central precept of his campaign being that Christians objecting to his lifestyle were bad at religion while he is not.” The sophomoric wordplay, the gratuitous insults, and the mischaracterization of Pete’s campaign indelibly stamp this nonsense as the product of a conservative. Next, Burnett gets to the meat of the matter — because the book alone is not worth discussing: “And in his forward to this [the book], Mike Johnson call the book, and I quote, ‘a valuable and timely contribution.’ What's your reaction to that?" Buttigieg does his best to answer: Where do you even, where do you even start with this, right? It's 2023, I guess 2022 when the book came out, and we’re still talking about people this way — based on who they are, who they love? America, or most of America at least, has moved on from this kind of thing. And what’s obnoxious is the idea that you can be coming back to race or sexuality, as this author does constantly, Not just the way he talks about me, but the way he talks about cabinet colleagues of mine. All kinds of things that seem to come back to an obsession with identity with either who you are married to or what your race is — and very little, or very little of use, about how to make this country a better place, Burnett stays with Johnson. “He [Johnson] wrote the forward because he believed in the product and he endorsed the work. He said, and I quote. ‘I loved the book.’ Burnett then reported what Johnson’s office claimed when the offensive passages were pointed out: Johnson spokesperson: “The Speaker had never read the passages highlighted in the CNN story which he strongly disagrees with. He wrote the forward as a favor to a friend, supportive of the general theme of the book but not as and not as an endorsement of all the opinions expressed.” Buttigieg expressed disbelief the Speaker was unaware of the opinions expressed. He pointed out how deeply tied Johnson is to the author and called the Speaker a liar. “I have often been called to write a blurb for a book. He didn't just do that. He didn't just put a quote on the back of it. He wrote a forward that is in the book. Then had this guy on his podcast. And then went out of his way to say things associating himself both with the author and with the book. So that just doesn’t pass the smell test.” Burnett then pointed out Johnson's long-standing and freely-offered anti-LGBTQ rhetoric. And offered examples of his homophobic rants: “It's time for an honest conversation about homosexuality. There's freedom to change if you want to.” “Homosexual behavior is something you do. It's not something you are.” “One in four high school students identify as something other than straight. We're losing the country." “Experts project that homosexual marriage is the dark harbinger of chaos and sexual anarchy could doom even the strongest republic.” Burnett then made the obvious point that Johnson talks about homosexuality a lot. To which Buttigieg replied: “He seems fixated on it.” Draw your own conclusions. [END] --- [1] Url: https://dailykos.com/stories/2023/12/2/2209299/-Pete-Buttigieg-wonders-why-Speaker-I-m-with-Jesus-Johnson-is-obsessed-with-gays?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=trending&pm_medium=web Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/