The book reflects on his experience on the campaign trail — “political spouses must be both everything and nothing, working nonstop without ever stealing the spotlight,” he writes — but its primary focus is on his younger years, coming of age in a conservative part of rural Michigan, and coming out as gay.
MANCHESTER, N.H. — Chasten Buttigieg is coming back to New Hampshire. This time, instead of promoting the 2020 presidential campaign of his husband, Pete Buttigieg, he’s peddling the young adult adaptation of his memoir, “ I Have Something to Tell You .”
This story first appeared in Globe NH | Morning Report, our free newsletter focused on the news you need to know about New Hampshire, including great coverage from the Boston Globe and links to interesting articles from other places. If you’d like to receive it via e-mail Monday through Friday, you can sign up here.
Get N.H. Morning Report A weekday newsletter delivering the N.H. news you need to know right to your inbox. Enter Email Sign Up
“The goal was to write the book I wish I would have had when I was younger,” he told the Globe. “It’s a book I wish I would have had when I was terrified, when I was believing that I was the only gay person in the world for a long time.”
Advertisement
He folds lighthearted asides into each chapter. (“Nobody wants to just read about trauma, right?” he said.) And he takes a similar approach to the book tour, blending funny storytelling with reflections on the isolation and discomfort that so often accompany LGBTQ experiences.
Chasten Buttigieg poses with his book, “I Have Something to Tell You: For Young Adults” at the 2023 GLSEN Respect Awards at Cipriani 42nd Street on May 15, 2023 in New York City. Craig Barritt/Getty Images for GLSEN
His tour stop in New Hampshire, a ticketed event, will take place Friday evening at Bookery Manchester.
The vibe has differed, he said, at every stop of the tour. The itinerary has taken him to places where the recent wave of Republican-backed anti-LGBTQ legislation has been especially strong, including Missouri, Florida, and Texas, for events that he said clearly connect with the parents, librarians, and others who are terrified for young people in this political climate.
Advertisement
And he has a theory on why so much GOP messaging centers on so-called “culture war” topics, often involving gender and sexuality: “I think it’s pretty lazy,” he said.
“There are many issues that the American people are asking folks in power to focus on” — such as reproductive health care, climate change, LGBTQ equality, and firearms being the leading cause of death for US children — “and it’s so much easier to focus on hatred, or divisiveness, or invented culture wars,” he said. “You don’t really have to do much. You can just go out there, say some crazy s—, fundraise off of it, and then it’s a vicious cycle.”
While the in-person backlash on his book tour has been minimal, Buttigieg said he has encountered about what one would expect from the “keyboard warriors” online.
“I wish some of these people would read the book, to learn about what it’s like to be a young queer person in this country wondering if you’ll ever know love, or if your family will still be by your side, if you’ll ever make it out,” he said.
“At one point in my life, I was convinced that there was no path forward,” he added, “and I think tools like this are so necessary, especially for a community that is constantly under such scrutiny and attack.”
Advertisement
Chasten’s husband performed well in New Hampshire’s primary but suspended his campaign just before Super Tuesday and ultimately landed a job in President Biden’s cabinet as transportation secretary. Then two Buttigieg babies, Gus and Penelope, arrived in August 2021, a development that Chasten said has kept them busy.
“I like getting out there and talking about causes I believe in,” he said, “but I also just really, really love spending time with my kids. … This is the dream that I always wanted, to be a really good dad, and my hands are pretty full.”
Steven Porter can be reached at steven.porter@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @reporterporter.