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Former South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg was confirmed by the Senate as President Joe Biden’s transportation secretary Tuesday.
While it was the first time the upper chamber confirmed an openly gay member of a presidential cabinet, it wasn’t the first time an openly gay man served in the coveted White House inner circle. The presidential cabinet included an openly gay man less than a year ago.
President Donald Trump’s former U.S. ambassador to Germany, Ric Grenell, served as the president’s director of national intelligence from February to June last year. Legacy media, however, spent Tuesday predictably celebrating Buttigieg’s addition to the cabinet as a triumphant first, whitewashing Grenell’s tenure in the process.
Former Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg speaks as US President-elect Joe Biden looks on after he was nominated to be Secretary of Transportation (Getty/Kevin Lamarque)
Pete Buttigieg is poised for a swift confirmation hearing on Thursday (21 January), just one day after Joe Biden takes office.
The former South Bend mayor and presidential hopeful requires confirmation by the Senate for his new role as secretary of transportation, which will make him the first out gay cabinet member to be Senate-confirmed.
Controversial gay Trump loyalist Richard Grenell previously occupied a cabinet seat on an acting basis for three months while another nominee was approved by the Senate, but no out LGBT+ person has ever held a full-time role.