Buttigieg to headline Human Rights Campaign dinner

South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg (D) will keynote the Human Rights Campaign’s (HRC) Las Vegas Dinner next month as he continues to gin up support for his 2020 White House bid.

“Mayor Pete Buttigieg is changing hearts and minds across America in his trailblazing campaign to be the Democratic Party’s first out nominee for President of the United States,” HRC President Chad Griffin said in a press release. “As a visible and outspoken advocate for LGBTQ equality, Mayor Pete has demonstrated a steadfast commitment to our community and we are honored to welcome him to our Las Vegas Dinner.”

Buttigieg visited the HRC headquarters in Washington in January after announcing his presidential exploratory committee. His husband, Chasten, spoke at the 2019 HRC Houston Dinner earlier this month.{mosads}

Former President Barack Obama, former Vice President Joe Biden and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have previously spoken at the HRC’s national dinner.

Buttigieg officially announced his presidential campaign on Sunday. If elected, he would be the first openly gay president.

The previously unknown South Bend mayor has highlighted his sexual orientation in recent days amid a feud with Vice President Pence over Pence’s stance on LGBTQ issues. 

Buttigieg has taken aim at Pence for the policies enacted under his tenure as Indiana governor.

“The vice president is entitled to his religious beliefs. My problem is when those religious beliefs are used as an excuse to harm other people,” Buttigieg said on CNN this week. “That was a huge issue for us in Indiana when he advanced a discriminatory bill in 2015 under the guise of religious freedom that said it was lawful to discriminate, provided you invoked religion as your excuse,” Buttigieg continued, referring to the Religious Freedom Restoration Act that Pence signed into law. 

The law allowed businesses to use religious liberty as a defense if they believed the government was infringing on their exercise of religion. Critics claimed the legislation would allow businesses to discriminate against the LGBTQ community. 

Pence and his wife, Karen, have pushed back against Buttigieg’s criticism, saying he is taking aim at them unfairly. 

Buttigieg, who has seen a rise in polls and notable fundraising in recent weeks, was known to have a cordial relationship with Pence when the two both served in Indiana.