South Bend, Ind., mayor and Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg said on Wednesday that he no longer follows LGBT media.
Buttigieg is the only openly gay candidate running for president. SiriusXM radio host Clay Cane asked Buttigieg if his less "effeminate" personality as a gay man gave him an advantage.
"I’m sure you've heard this before in LGBT circles, that more masculine-presenting men have more access," Cane said. "How different would it be if you were, quote-unquote, 'more effeminate?'"
"It's tough for me to know, right?" Buttigieg said. "Because I just am what I am and, you know there's going to be a lot of that. That's why I can't even read the LGBT media anymore because it's all: 'too gay, not gay enough, wrong kind of gay.'"
"All I know is that life became a lot easier when I just started allowing myself to be myself," he said, "and I'll let other people write up whether I’m 'too this' or 'too that.'"
Buttigieg came out as gay later in his life. He shared in his pre-campaign memoir, Shortest Way Home, that he was concerned he would solely be defined by or become a poster child for LGBT issues.
"I had strongly supported the causes from the beginning, but did not want to be defined by them," Buttigieg wrote.
Buttigieg, however, stressed his sexuality at the Victory Fund National Champagne Brunch in April.
"If you could have offered me a pill that could make me straight, I would have swallowed it before you could give me a swig of water," Buttigieg told the audience. "It's a hard thing to think about now. If you had shown me exactly what it was that made me gay, I would have cut it out with a knife."
"Thank God there was no pill," he said. "Thank God there was no knife."