Earlier this year, Mayor Pete Buttigieg was facing off against Joe Biden for the Democratic nomination on the US Presidential ticket.
Now, President-elect Biden has nominated Buttigieg for a position in his first cabinet when he enters the White House in 2021.
Biden has tapped Buttigieg for the role of transportation secretary in his cabinet, pending confirmation from the divided US Senate.
If successful, the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana and military veteran would be the first LGBTQ+ person to acknowledge their sexuality in a permanent cabinet role.
Earlier this year President Trump appointed Richard Grenell to the position of Acting Director of National Intelligence. He held the position from February to May.
“Travel, in my mind, is synonymous with growth, with adventure, even love. So much so that I proposed to my husband Chasten in an airport terminal,” Buttigeig said of his nomination.
“I am also mindful that the eyes of history are on this appointment, knowing that this is the first time an American president has ever sent an openly LGBTQ cabinet member to the Senate for confirmation.”
President-elect Biden said he chose Buttigieg because the portfolio is at the intersection of some of his most ambitious plans, and Mayor Pete is “one of the smartest people you’ll ever meet and one of the most humble.”
“A mayor from the heartland, a management expert, a policy wonk with a big heart, a veteran, lieutenant in the United States Navy Reserve, an intelligence officer deployed to Afghanistan while he was mayor. A new voice with new ideas, determined to move past old politics.”
The honour of being the first LGBT person to hold a cabinet post in the USA is held by Frances Perkins who was the US Secretary of Labour from 1933 to 1945., however he bisexuality was not public knowledge.
OIP Staff
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