Chasten and Pete Buttigieg — Photo: @Chasten / Twitter
Pete Buttigieg has voices his concerns about the future of his marriage should Amy Coney Barrett be confirmed to the Supreme Court.
The former mayor of South Bend, Ind., was appearing on Fox News on Sunday, Oct. 18 to discuss Donald Trump’s nominee to the Supreme Court.
Buttigieg, who married husband Chasten in 2018, told Fox News’ host Chris Wallace that the legality of their union could be in question should Barrett — who has a history of anti-LGBTQ sentiments — be confirmed by the Republican-controlled Senate.
He noted that there are “all kinds of interesting questions on the future of the American judiciary,” before pivoting from health care to same-sex marriage.
“Right now as we speak the pre-existing condition coverage of millions of Americans might depend on what is about to happen in the senate with regard to this justice,” he continued. “My marriage might depend on what is about to happen in the Senate with regard to this justice.”
Same-sex marriage was legalized nationwide in 2015, following the Supreme Court’s landmark Obergefell decision.
However, earlier this month two Supreme Court justices called for the Obergefell decision to be overturned — effectively revoking marriage equality in those states without existing same-sex marriage laws.
In a dissent written for a separate case related to same-sex marriages, Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas argued that the court had bypassed the democratic process in Obergefell, and said the landmark ruling would “continue to have ‘ruinous consequences for religious liberty.'”
Barrett, a social conservative, has been accused of “hostility” towards marginalized groups, with LGBTQ advocates alleging that she would “dismantle” LGBTQ rights should she be confirmed by the Senate.
During her confirmation hearings, Barrett had to apologize after calling sexual orientation a “preference,” a term Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) noted is “used by anti-LGBTQ activists to suggest that sexual orientation is a choice.”
“It is not,” Hirono continued. “Sexual orientation is a key part of a person’s identity.”
On Fox News, where he has gained a reputation for strong condemnations of the Trump administration as a surrogate for former Vice President Joe Biden’s presidential campaign, Buttigieg slammed Senate Republicans for trying to jam through Barrett’s nomination before the election.
“It’s not in the spirit of our constitution, or our legal system, or political system for them to do this,” he said. “Most Americans believe that the American people ought to have a say. We’re not talking about an election that’s coming up, we’re in the middle of an election, millions of Americans are voting and want their voice to be heard.
“There’s an enormous amount of frustration that this Senate can’t even bring itself, with Mitch McConnell, to vote through a Covid relief package. People are suffering, people are hurting, there’s no clear end in sight,” he continued. “There’s been a bill we brought to them months ago coming out of the house, they won’t touch it, they won’t do anything but suddenly they have time to rush through a nomination that the American people don’t want. Whatever specific word you use for it, wrong is the word I would use.”
"Hold on just a second, I have to put the phone down for a sec. I'll be right back," says Paula Poundstone as our conversation begins. A minute later, she's back with an explanation.
"I'm about to feed my cat Larry," she says. "And I feed Larry by throwing one piece of food at a time across the room, but that requires getting all the other cats out of the room."
How many cats does Paula Poundstone own? "I have 11," she replies. When I joke that she's playing into stereotypes, the 65-year-old comic breaks into a hearty laugh.
"I think I probably am, but you know what? Cat people are good people, I think. The fact that JD Vance hates us is so empowering. And my cats can't talk, but trust me, they don't like JD Vance."
Dutch authorities say Veronica Clifford-Carlos failed to prove she faces a "legitimate risk of persecution" or threat of physical harm in the United States.
A Dutch court has upheld a ruling rejecting a U.S. transgender woman's bid for asylum, finding she does not face a substantial enough threat of persecution in her home country.
Veronica Clifford-Carlos, a 28-year-old visual artist from California, said she once believed she’d build a life in the United States, but felt compelled to flee after receiving death threats over her gender identity.
Clifford-Carlos left the United States -- leaving behind friends and her dog -- and flew to the Netherlands with her father. Upon arrival, she applied for asylum, telling authorities about the abuse she endured in the United States, particularly after President Donald Trump’s re-election last fall.
Justine Lindsay, the NFL's first out transgender cheerleader, recently revealed that she was fired this year, a decision she alleges was motivated by transphobia and Donald Trump's election as president.
"I was cut because I'm trans," Lindsay said in an Instagram Live with Gaye Magazine. "I don't wanna hear nobody saying, 'She didn't wanna come back.' Why the hell would I not wanna come back to an organization that I've been a part of for three years? That makes no sense to me. So I was cut. I was devastated. It stung. I was hurt."
Lindsay, who made history as the NFL's first transgender cheerleader when she tried out and made the Carolina Panthers's TopCats squad in 2022, told the magazine that her teammates "know the truth" about the decision to cut her from the squad.
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