Mayor Pete tells Pence marriage has brought him closer to god

Gay Presidential hopeful Pete Buttigieg roasted Vice President Mike Pence over his views on LGBTQ rights in a speech to Victory Fund on Sunday. 

Mayor Pete spoke about his own struggles with reconciling his faith with his sexuality saying “When I was younger, I would have done anything not to be gay.”

“When I began to realise what it meant that I felt the way I did, I launched a kind of war [inside me], and if that war had been settled on the terms that I wished for when I was 15 or 20 or 25, I would not be standing here.”

“If you had offered me a pill to make me straight, I would have swallowed it before you had time to give me a sip of water. If you showed me exactly what it was inside me that made me gay, I would have cut it out with a knife.”

“If I had had a chance to do that, I wouldn’t have found my way to [husband] Chasten. The best thing in my life, my marriage, might not have happened at all. How dark the thought that the man I love might not have been part of my life at all.

“Thank God there was no pill, thank God there was no knife.”

He added: “People talk about marriage equality as a moral issue. And it certainly is a moral issue as far as I’m concerned, because being married to Chasten has made me a better human being.

“[Being married] has made me more compassionate, more understanding, more self-aware and more decent. My marriage to Chasten has made me a better man. And yes, Mr Vice President, it has moved me closer to God.”

Watch the full speech:

For more information on Mayor Pete, check out www.peteforamerica.com