Mayor Pete's Husband, Chasten Buttigieg, Writing Memoir

Chasten Buttigieg – the husband of former Democratic presidential hopeful Pete Buttigieg – is writing a memoir of his time on the campaign trail with his spouse, reports Vulture.

The article noted that Buttigieg brought his campaign to a halt more than two months ago, helping to clear the way for Joe Biden to become the presumptive Democratic nominee.

But while Mayor Pete's campaign may not have led to Buttigieg being named the Democratic candidate in this year's presidential election, it made history all the same, with Buttigieg being the first openly gay Democratic presidential contender.

The new book is titled "I Have Something To Tell You," and is due out in September, Vulture noted.

People Magazine broke the story, reporting that Chasten intends his memoir to be a more casual read than other political memoirs.

Said Chasten:

"I'm picturing what happens when I get to catch up with a friend.

"I want the reader to feel like we're sitting down for a drink or we're grabbing coffee. We pull up a chair and I'm like, 'Boy, do I have a story. You not going to believe how I went from showing steers in high school to running for president with my husband in such a short period of time.' "

Saying that the hurly-burly of life on the campaign trail with his husband felt like "watching the world just swirl past you," Chasten told People that now, in the wake of Pete's run, "I'm able to sit and take a deep breath and find some clarity and put some thoughts on the page."

Chasten added that his book won't be an extended "It Gets Better" bromide, long on pep talks and short on details; rather, he disclosed, the book will get into how sorting out his life "was hard and it's murky and it's sticky and it was challenging and heartbreaking."

Some of Chasten's story has already appeared in the press. A 2019 Washington Post profile documented how, as a teenager, Chasten felt so rejected by his family for being gay that he left home for a time and slept in his car and on the couches of friends.

Not unlike his husband Pete did in one his own interviews, Chasten described to the Post a time when he was "itching and clawing to try to change whatever brain chemistry was making me the way I was." Like Pete, Chasten eventually came to terms with the unchangeable fact of who he is and began to live authentically, even though in high school he had to brave harassment and bullying. One friend, he recalled, told him he should reconsider his sexuality – "Like it was a choice," Chasten recounted.

As for his family, Chasten recalled his mother in tears, wondering whether he was "sick." ("I think she meant, like, did I have AIDS?" he said.) His brothers were hostile to the idea of having a gay sibling. Eventually, "I felt like I just could not be there.

"So I left."

Eventually, Chasten and his parents reconciled, but it was a different story between Chasten and his brothers, the eldest of whom, Rhyan Glezman, is now a pastor.

"I want the best for him," Rhyan Glezman told the Post, before resorting to a standard trope: "I just don't support the gay lifestyle."

Conservative news outlets flocked to Rhyan's claims when he alleged that his brother exaggerated his youthful hardships, and suggested that Pete Buttigieg's campaign used Chasten's account to drum up sympathy and support.

But LGBTQ Americans – and especially youth – saw something that no amount of talking down can diminish: The story of how two men came out, found each other, fell in love, got married, and faced life's ups and downs as a committed couple, unwilling to hide in the shadows – just like countless heterosexuals do, all without their marriages being derisively termed a "lifestyle" or a "choice."

That story will no doubt be snapped up when it becomes available between two covers.