Pete Buttigieg met with Rev. Al Sharpton on April 29 at a restaurant in Manhattan’s Harlem neighborhood.
A press release Sharpton’s organization, the National Action Network, released before the meeting said the two men “will discuss the need to confront homophobia in the faith community as well as the mayor’s policy agenda for the black community in Indiana and around the country.”
Buttigieg, who is the mayor of South Bend, Ind., is one of more than a dozen Democrats who are running for president. Buttigieg, who married his husband, Chasten Buttigieg, in 2018, would be the first openly gay man elected president if he were to win.
His meeting with Sharpton took place less than a week Rev. Franklin Graham said Buttigieg should repent because he is gay.
E.W. Jackson, an African American pastor who has previously run for lieutenant governor and the U.S. Senate in Virginia, earlier this month said the U.S. would become a “homocracy” if Buttigieg is elected president. Anti-gay protesters on April 17 heckled Buttigieg while he spoke at two campaign events in Iowa.
Buttigieg has also faced questions over the impact his administration’s policies have had on South Bend’s black residents
