Barney Frank: Buttigieg wouldn't be getting the same attention 'if he were straight'

Source: The Hill | April 18, 2019 | Zack Budryk

Former Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) says he doesn’t think Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg would have had the same meteoric rise in the polls he’s seen “if he was straight.”

“If he were straight, I don’t think he’d be getting the attention that he’s getting,” Frank told host Chris Matthews on MSNBC’s “Hardball” on Wednesday. But Frank added, that when Buttigieg “gets the attention, he is so talented and good at this and solid that he makes the most of it.”

Both Buttigieg and Frank are openly gay.

Matthews contrasted the reception Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Ind., received with Frank’s own experiences in Congress. He recalled that when Frank came out to then-House Speaker Thomas “Tip” O’Neill (D-Mass.), O’Neill responded that he was “sorry to hear it,” saying Frank could otherwise have been Speaker some day.

Frank called Buttigieg’s progress “both a sign that the prejudice is diminishing and it is an opportunity further to diminish the prejudice by giving him this platform.”

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