POLITICS
Buttigieg’s Plan for Black America Rollout Stumbles
South Bend mayor compounds his struggle to make inroads with African Americans
BY MATT TRACY
Perceptions that out gay
presidential candidate
Pete Buttigieg, the South
Bend, Indiana, mayor,
has a problematic relationship with
African-American voters were compounded
by his campaign’s rollout
of a press release and open letter
in which several South Carolinians
listed as backers of his Douglass
Plan for Black America said they
did not in fact support the plan and
felt the campaign misrepresented
them.
As reported by The Intercept, a
press release sent out to reporters
and an open letter published October
24 in the HBCU Times (which
serves the Historically Black Colleges
and Universities community)
stated that the letter was “by
Columbia City Councilmember
Tameika Devine, SC Democratic
Party Black Caucus Chair Johnnie
Cordero, Rehoboth Baptist Pastor
and State Rep. Ivory Thigpen, and
more than 400 Douglass Plan endorsers.”
The letter states, “Together,
we endorse Buttigieg’s Douglass
Plan for Black America, the
most comprehensive roadmap for
South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg at an appearance in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, this past spring.
tackling systemic racism offered by
a 2020 presidential candidate.”
In response, Devine told The Intercept
the campaign framed the
letter as if she was endorsing him.
“Clearly from the number of calls
I received about my endorsement, I
think the way they put it out there
wasn’t clear, that it was an endorsement
of the plan, and that may
have been intentionally vague,”
she said. “I’m political, I know how
that works. I do think they probably
put it out there thinking people
DONNA ACETO
wouldn’t read the fi ne print or
wouldn’t look at the details or even
contact the people and say, ‘Hey,
you’re endorsing Mayor Pete?’”
Thigpen, a Bernie Sanders supporter,
was concerned his name
was listed atop the letter, telling
The Intercept, “How it was rolled
out was not an accurate representation
of where I stand... it was clear
to me, or at least I thought I made
it clear to them, that I was a strong
Bernie Sanders supporter — actually
co-chair of the state, and I was
not seeking to endorse their candidate
or the plan.”
He added, “I actually had not
circled back to give them a quote,
so I was alarmed and very much
surprised to see, particularly, the
headline as such because I do
think it muddies the water, I do
think it was a misrepresentation,
and it easily could have confused a
lot of people as to where I stood.”
The headline of the article read,
“More Than 400 South Carolinians
Endorse Mayor Pete Buttigieg’s
Douglass Plan for Black America.”
Cordero’s request to be removed
from the op-ed, meanwhile, was
honored when he contacted the
campaign after the piece was released.
The campaign is further complicating
the situation in a response
to Gay City News’ questions about
why some folks were listed as backers
of the plan when they had not
issued an endorsement of it. The
campaign said it “reached out to
people multiple times giving them
the opportunity to review the language
of the op-ed and the option
to opt-out,” meaning rather than
➤ BUTTIGIEG & BLACKS, continued on p.9
Lending Dignity to Folks Who Died, Alone, From AIDS
City Council transfers Hart Island, potter’s fi eld since 19th century, to parks department
BY MATT TRACY
The City Council on November 14
overwhelmingly approved a series
of bills intended to make it easier
for loved ones to visit burial sites on
Hart Island, a public cemetery where New York
has buried unknown, unclaimed, or indigent
people — including many lost to AIDS — since
the 19th century.
The island, located just east of the City Island
section of the Bronx, fi rst became a burial
site for people who died of AIDS in 1985 when
17 people who had succumbed to the epidemic
were taken there. Department of Correction offi
cials who controlled the island were so caught
up in the AIDS hysteria of the time they were
too afraid to bury those bodies near ones already
interred there. They instead buried those
those who died of AIDS on the southern end of
the island, according to The New York Times .
Soon enough, the rising death toll meant
countless people who died from AIDS ended up
getting buried there — most of them unclaimed
by any family members. The total number
of bodies buried there over the past century
and a half, according to the New York Times,
remains a mystery. Out gay Council Speaker
Corey Johnson, who is an out gay man living
with HIV, said estimates indicate that a million
bodies have been buried at the cemetery, which
continues to take new bodies to this day. OFFICE OF COUNCIL SPEAKER COREY JOHNSON
Out gay Speaker Corey Johnson visits the bodies of people who
died from AIDS at Hart Island last year.
➤ HART ISLAND, continued on p.9
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