“Mayor Pete” Buttigieg, the first openly-gay man to be considered a viable candidate for a major party’s presidential nomination, has been confirmed by a bipartisan vote of the Senate as U.S.
Secretary of Transportation. This makes Buttigieg the first openly-LGBTQ person confirmed by the Senate to a Cabinet-level position. (Last year in February, Trump appointed gay man Richard Grennell as acting director of U.S.
National Intelligence, a Cabinet-level position, but he was never confirmed by the Senate.) Buttigieg is not only the first openly-LGBTQ person confirmed by the Senate to a Cabinet position, at 39 he is the youngest-ever Secretary of Transportation.