"As a military officer serving under Don't Ask Don't Tell and as an elected official in the state of Indiana when Mike Pence was governor, at a certain point, when it came to professional setbacks I had to wonder whether just acknowloging who I was was going to be the ultimate, career-ending professional setback. I came back from the deployment and realised that you only get to live one life and I was not interested in not knowing what it was like to be in love any longer. So I just came out. I had no idea what kind of professional setback it would be especially cos, incoveniently, it was an election year in my socially conservative community. What happened was that when I trusted voters to judge me on the job that I did for them, they decided to trust me and re-elected me with 80% of the vote and what I learned was that trust can be reciprocated and that part of how you can win and derserve to win is to know what's worth more to you than winning."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Democratic Party (United States) politiciansMemoirists from the United StatesPeople from IndianaUnited States Secretaries of TransportationUnited States presidential candidates, 2020
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Said in the Democratic Party TV debates on 12 September 2019. Video footage can be found in a tweet from Buttigieg's account.
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Pete_Buttigieg
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Pete Buttigieg
Peter "Pete" Paul Montgomery Buttigieg (pronounced ; born January 19, 1982) is an American politician and former military officer who has served as the United States secretary of transportation since January 2021. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the 32nd mayor of South Bend, Indiana from 2012 to 2020, which earned him the nickname "Mayor Pete".
23 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Pete Buttigieg →
Related Quotes
"On one hand, the right wing is replete with personalities who undermine everything they profess to stand for. Across …"
"A new attitude has swept American politics. Candidates have discovered that is easier to be elected by not offending …"
"The real challenge for the Democratic Party, and its presidential candidates in particular, is to figure out how to r…"
"Politics is in my bones. I grew up hearing my parents hollering at the TV."
"The economic equivalent of a tornado did go through town. And it's not just in a symbolic way. It's in a physical way…"
"I was well into adulthood before I was prepared to acknowledge the simple fact that I am gay. It took years of strugg…"
"I am a Democrat because I believe in protecting freedom, fairness, families, and the future."
"If anything I think my story might help illustrate why categories aren’t as important as we think. I’m a church-going…"
"Military service used to be something that we had in common. It’s where people like a young John F Kennedy would meet…"
"Pete Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, similarly exploits liberals' lack of familiarity with rural culture to sell …"