South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg talked about his “obligation to help” those in the LGBTQ+ and other marginalized communities during Wednesday night’s Democratic primary debate.
“I welcome the challenge of connecting with black voters in America who don’t yet know me,” he opened, talking directly about his poor polling numbers with members of the African-American community. “Before I share what’s in my plans let me talk about what’s in my heart and why this is so important.”
“As mayor of a city that is racially diverse and largely low income, for eight years I have lived and breathed the successes and struggles of a community where far too many people live with the consequences of racial inequity that has built-up over centuries but been compounded by policies and decisions from within living memory,” he continued. “I care about this because my faith teaches me that salvation has to do with how I make myself useful to those who have been excluded, marginalized and cast aside and oppressed in society.” (RELATED: Buttigieg’s Biggest Boondoggle: An Army Of Federally Funded Leftist Activists?)
“I care about this because while I do not have the experience of ever having been discriminated against because of the color of my skin, I do have the experience of sometimes feeling like a stranger in my own country, turning on the news and seeing my own rights come up for debate, and seeing my rights expanded by a coalition of people like me and people not at all like me, working side by side shoulder to shoulder, making it possible for me to be standing here wearing this wedding ring in a way that couldn’t have happened two elections ago lets me know just how deep my obligation is to help those whose rights are on the line every day even if they are nothing like me in their experience.” (RELATED: Buttigieg Under Fire For Husband’s Photo At Holocaust Memorial)