In stirring speech, Pete Buttigieg makes history again for LGBTQ Americans as first gay cabinet nominee

Nearly a year ago in Des Moines, Pete Buttigieg hugged his husband onstage after his win in the Iowa caucuses made him the first openly LGBTQ candidate to earn delegates toward a major political party’s presidential nomination.

Now, he’s making history again as the first openly gay man to be nominated to a cabinet role, with President-elect Joe Biden tapping Buttigieg this week as his pick for U.S. transportation secretary.

As Buttigieg accepted the nomination Wednesday afternoon, he recalled how as a 17-year-old in Indiana, he watched the experience of James Hormel, who President Bill Clinton nominated as ambassador to Luxembourg in 1998 -- an appointment Senate Republicans balked at for two years in protest.