Shortest Way Home, by Pete Buttigieg: on Civil Rights

Mike Pence: OpEd: RFRA seen as allowing discrimination against gays

A beleaguered looking Pence appeared on This Week with George Stephanopoulos, trying to reassure a national audience that the bill was not about discrimination. The interview was a disaster. When Stephanopoulos asked, "Do you think it should be legal in the state of Indiana to discriminate against gays or lesbians?" Pence paused, and winced. "George." he began, then sighed.

"It's a yes or no question!" Stephanopoulos pressed. No matter how many times he was asked, Pence would not simply say that the answer was no. (Which means he probably believed the answer was yes, but at least he knew not to admit it.) One national columnist later described it as "very possibly one of the worst appearances by a governor in television history." ÿ

Pete Buttigieg: As mayor, renamed main street as Martin Luther King Blvd

It turns out that one of the few unilateral, unchecked powers that an Indiana mayor has is to rename a street. Every idea I floated for such "toponymic commemoration" met a new angle of resistance. There turned out to be a natural alternative: Saint Joseph Street. There were enough places already named after our area's patron saint of nearly everything. I announced it, arranged for the street signs to be made, and made it official on Dr. King's birthday in 2017.

Achieving this took only four years. And now, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard looks good, and so do the busses bearing Dr. King's name that run along it.

Pete Buttigieg: Declared "open city" for LGBT, when state became anti-LGBT

The only way to avoid South Bend getting lumped in with the rest of the state was to be vocal. I sought to reassure members of the LGBT community that they were safe in South Bend, and called on the state to reverse course.

My office distributed stickers reading "COME ON IN: SOUTH BEND IS AN OPEN CITY," and they quickly became appearing in restaurant and shop windows across town.

Pete Buttigieg: Someday, politicians won't have to come out as gay

If any disappointment surfaced at the table that night, it came after my mom looked at me, with a little light in her eyes, and asked, "Is there someone?" Only after answering no, and seeing the light fade a little, did I realize that the tone of her question had been one of hope. No, there wasn't someone at the moment. But I wished there were.

Someday politicians won't have to come out as gay any more than one "comes out" as straight. Someone like me would just show up at a social function with a date who was of the same sex, and everyone would figure it out and shrug. Maybe it's already getting to be like that, in some coastal cities. But not in Indiana.