A pair of activists representing the LGBT separatist group “Queers Against Pete” were ejected after attempting to disrupt a Buttigieg campaign event in San Francisco.
The activists were part of a group of protesting outside the event which disturbed many of those attending.
The protesters say that they have the same issues that members of the “queer community” are using against the openly gay candidate. Buttigieg’s unwillingness to support Medicare for All, free college for all (although Buttigieg does support free college tuition and help for those who cannot afford it) , his issues with communities of color, and his ties to billionaire donors.
“We need better, we deserve better,” Adiel Pollydore, a 26-year-old program director with Student Action who is black and queer. “The people who disrupted that fundraiser were all queer people of color,” Pollydore said. “We’re allowed to want the gay candidate who is running to do better and be better for queer communities of color. There’s nothing homophobic about that.
“Pete Buttigieg represents a very small percentage of the experiences of queer and trans people in this country, being white and being cisgender and being a man, being someone who is highly educated,” Pollydore said. “We know queer and trans folks of color, especially black queer and trans folks, live at the intersection of so many systems of oppression in this country. This run for president could have been a really unique opportunity to lift up those experiences and talk about all the different ways we are criminalized and our safety is constantly threatened and we are shut out of institutions on the regular. But this campaign has not been about that ”
The group has no plans to protest any of the other candidates who do not agree with their tenants.
A recent study preformed by the prestigious Williams Institute found that only 6 percent of the LGBT community identify as queer, 50 percent identify as lesbian/gay, 41 percent identify as bisexual, and 7 percent use another sexual minority identity (e.g., pansexual).
*NOTE: Adiel Pollydore and Celi Tamayo-Lee who organized the protest are both Bernie Sanders supporters