“Mayor Pete”: The first openly gay candidate in a
presidential primary season
Indianapolis 2012
Amazon Prime today released to VOD Amazon Studio’s own
documentary “Mayor Pete”, directed by Jesse Moss, written with Jeff Seymann Gilbert and Amanda McBaine,
96 min., “R” (surprisingly). It was premiered in Los Angeles on Nov. 5.
The documentary opens with a home scene with Pete
Buttigieg’s husband Chasten Glezman, before moving in to its chronicle of Pete’s campaign for the Democratic
presidential nomination, the first in modern times from an openly gay candidate
(we can speculate about James Buchanan).
The film actually first focuses on his time as mayor of his
hometown, South Bend, Indiana, which would suffer rust belt economics after
Studebaker left town in the early 60s. His leadership would be challenged by a
couple of major incidents involving white police officers and black citizens
(Wikipedia).
He did not “come out” until 2015, but he served in
intelligence in the Naval Reserve in Afghanistan in2014, after repeal of “Don’t
Ask, Don’t Tell”. He had received a direct commission and his duties were interesting.
The film covers the early days of his campaign, where some
consultants feared he was overly intellectual and stiff with emotion. But he
would win the Iowa caucus in January 2020 (the counting methods became
controversial) and placed close second in the New Hampshire primary.
The film has a lone scene with a religious anti-gay
protester, a sign curiously pointing at the supposedly avoidant nature of male
homosexual inclination as if it deliberately frustrated the potential family
life of others. Pete offers straightforward accounts as homosexuality as
immutable personally.
The film hardly mentions the approaching coronavirus
pandemic, but that was certainly a pressure point as all the Democratic
candidates got behind Biden on March 2, 2020 (I would work
the Virginia Primary as an election judge 16 hours on March 3).
Pete and Chasten have adopted twins (details).
At the end, President-elect Biden names him Transportation
Secretary. Maybe the first openly gay Cabinet member. More important, one of
the youngest. Buttigieg is 39 and makes the obvious case for strong youthful
intellect in office, as Biden struggles a bit (and so did Trump). I can think of other “young people” who will
win (whether straight or not). Mike
Donnelly, late 30s, NYC, a data
scientist who has done a lot of work on coronavirus spread that the pubic overlooks. OK, Avi Schiffmann is just 19
(invented one of the world’s most used trackers before the CDC realized there
would occur a pandemic), and David Hogg keeps organizing everyone on Twitter at
age 21. Too bad, John Fish and Max
Reisinger weren’t born in the US. And Tyler Mowery spouts his Eternal laser
eyes on Twitter. And Tim Pool has recently
turned 35.
Buttigieg’s swearing in Feb. 3, 2021, wiki.
Name: “Mayor Pete”
Director, writer: Jesse
Moss
Released: 2021/11
Format: 1.85:1
When and how viewed: Amazon
Prime, free w sub, 2021/11/12
Length: 96
Rating: R
Companies: Amazon
Prime
Link: imdb
Stars: ****_
(Posted: Friday, November 12, 2021
at 2 PM at 1 PM EST).
Posted onNovember 12, 2021
CategoriesB-Movies, biography,
DADT, documentary, gay marriage, LGBT, LGBT parents
TagsAmazon Studios, Pete Buttigieg