Gay Indiana mayor – who Obama tipped to one day be president, marries partner then goes to Pride
The gay mayor of an Indiana city has married his partner and celebrated at a Pride event.
South Bend mayor Peter Buttigieg, 36, and middle school teacher Chasten Glezman, 28, wed in Indiana this weekend.
Buttigieg was named as a rising star in the Democrat Party by Barack Obama in an article for Politico and said that he had the potential to be president one day.
A gay mayor in Indiana married his teacher partner – and then called in at a Pride event (Twitter / Peter Buttigieg)
The pair married in a cathedral in from of 200 guests on Saturday and had the ceremony streamed on YouTube in a nod to its significance.
The ceremony featured a reading from Justice Anthony Kennedy’s majority opinion in Obergefell v Hodges, the Supreme Court case that granted marriage equality in America.
A further 200 people join them for a reception, where their first dance was a soulful cover of 1998 song, When You Say Nothing At All, according to The New York Times.
However immediately after the ceremony the pair made an appearance at a local Pride block party, where the donned rainbow coloured beard and wore beads.
Mayor Peter Buttigieg (m) and Chasten Glezman (l) pictured getting their marriage license last week (Twitter / Peter Buttigieg)
Buttigieg briefly addressed the crowd, telling them: “We know that only a few years ago this wouldn’t have even been possible. So, thank you for everything you’ve done to make sure this is a welcoming community. And happy Pride!”
He later tweeted: “Thrilled beyond words to be wed to @ChastenGlezman and ready to begin the rest of our lives together. Thanks to all who helped us celebrate and who shared kind wishes!”
The pair met on dating app hinge shortly after Buttigieg, or “Mayor Pete” as he’s known, came out in 2015 and he realised that he’d find it hard to find to find love in a town of 100,000 where he’s sitting mayor.
The pair met in August 2015, just three months after Mayor Pete came out (Twitter / Peter Buttigieg)
Glezman lived 95 miles away in Chicago, their first meetings involved beer dates over FaceTime, however by the time they met face-to-face for the first time, there were literal and metaphorical fireworks following the baseball game they attended.
Mayor Pete decided to come out in response to a religious freedom bill signed by Vice President Mike Pence, the then State Governor.
“I was well into adulthood before I was prepared to acknowledge the simple fact that I am gay,” he wrote in an essay for The South Bend Tribune.
Accepting his community weren’t welcoming of LGBTQ rights, he added: “South Bend isn’t exactly the land of change.”
