Pete Buttigieg

As the first out cabinet secretary in U.S. history, Pete Buttigieg is one of the most visible out gay Americans in public life. Buttigieg rose to prominence as mayor of South Bend, Indiana, where he helped revitalize the struggling town, serving from 2012 to 2019. An intelligence officer in the US Navy Reserve, he was deployed to Afghanistan during his mayoral tenure in 2014. During Pride Month in 2015, Buttigieg penned an op-ed to his constituents in which he came out as gay. Buttigieg built an impressive presidential campaign during the 2020 election cycle, earning national endorsements and competing in two state contests. He became the first out LGBTQ+ major party candidate to win a state contest, Iowa, when he narrowly beat out Sen. Bernie Sanders there and earned the most delegates. He left the race after the third contest in South Carolina and endorsed Vice President Joe Biden, who won the state. Buttigieg was sworn in as U.S. Secretary of Transportation on February 3, 2021 - the first out LGBTQ+ Senate-confirmed member of the cabinet in history.