Pete Buttigieg’s Husband Defends Him After Tucker Carlson Says He ‘Lied’ About Being Gay – HuffPost

Carlson appeared to suggest that Buttigieg — a former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, and one-time presidential candidate — only announced he was gay when it served him politically and used it to decry the mass shooting at the LGBTQ nightclub in Colorado that killed at least five people.

Carlson claimed the transportation secretary “wouldn’t even admit that he was gay” until several years ago. That shouldn’t be surprising, given the increasingly vicious attacks against gays, including by Carlson.

Buttigieg has explained that he feared coming out publicly could have ended his career and had him booted from the military.

Buttigieg’s husband, Chasten Buttigieg, derided Carlson for going after the “easy,” ugly smear in his appearance on “CNN This Morning.”

“This kind of rhetoric is easy. It’s so easy to attack people and to go on your talk show and fire people up about something that’s not actually happening,” he told CNN’s Don Lemon.

“With these megaphones, they have a big platform,” he added, referring to right-wing media personalities. “Rather than focusing on real issues, people’s lives, making them better, they’ve decided to focus on hate.”

He pointed out that his husband served under the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy that would have resulted in his discharge from the military had he announced he was gay.

Chasten Buttigieg suggested that Carlson, who tried to claim the transportation secretary isn’t doing his job, should take just a second to find out what he’s accomplishing by following him on Twitter.