Chasten Buttigieg, U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg’s husband, reportedly led children in a pledge of allegiance to the gay pride LGBT flag, during an unearthed video from 2019.
Buttigieg had the young children recite the following pledge:
I pledge my heart to the rainbow of the not so typical gay camp, to the gay agenda for which it stands. One camp, full of pride, indivisible, with affirmation and equal rights for all.
Buttigieg ended the pledge by waving the rainbow flag across the children’s view. The video is reportedly from a Democrat presidential primary campaign stop during Pete Buttigieg’s unsuccessful 2020 candidacy. A video recently went viral on Twitter that reportedly shows Buttigieg leading the gay pride pledge during a clip from Mayor Pete, a 2021 Amazon Prime documentary that highlights Pete Buttigieg’s failed 2020 presidential campaign.
The video shows Buttigieg wearing a shirt that reads “not your typical gay camp,” which is the slogan of Iowa Safe Schools’ Pride Camp.
The Des Moines Register reported that Buttigieg was scheduled to visit Iowa Safe Schools’ Pride Camp as a guest counselor in July 2019 one day after his husband Pete and other Democrat presidential hopefuls visited the camp.
Iowa Safe Schools’ Pride Camp’s mission “is to provide a safe and affirming place for LGBTQ & allied youth to learn valuable life skills and network with other LGBTQ youth in a supportive and nurturing environment.” The five-day long pride camp is open for children as young as 14.
The pride camp also offers programs to bring the “Pride Camp experience” to children as young as eight through its “Pride Camp Junior” and “Pride Camp University” events.
In a second clip posted to Twitter, Buttigieg discusses how being on the campaign trail gives him an opportunity to attend events like the Pride Camp. He said that the event “puts the wing in my sail.”
“Being out on the trail gives me the opportunity to come do things like this, I mean this stuff, just, like, puts the wing in my sail,” Buttigieg said.
Buttigieg is a former teacher and outspoken critic of Florida’s parental rights bill, which would prevent Florida school districts from encouraging classroom discussions about sexual orientation and gender identity in “primary grade levels.”
Parroting the White House, which referred to the legislation as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill, Buttigieg said, “In Florida, what kind of state are you building, where you’re essentially pushing kids back into the closet? You’re saying, ‘We can’t talk about you. We can’t even talk about your families.’” Buttigieg even claimed that the Florida bill “will kill kids.”
A Breitbart News fact check rated the claim that Florida legislators are targeting vulnerable gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and intersex children as false.
According to Breitbart’s fact check by Joel Pollak, “The legislation does not mention any particular sexuality and applies to teaching in ‘primary grades.’”