Pete Buttigieg on Martha-Ann Alito's anti-Pride flag rant

Pete Buttigieg is firing back at Martha-Ann Alito's anti-Pride flag sentiments in the most elegantly direct way.

Martha-Ann Alito, who is the wife of Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, has been the subject of quite a few controversies over the past several years, including concerns over potential ties to the Jan 6 insurrection. Most recently, she was among those secretly recorded by filmmaker Lauren Windsor during a dinner at which Windsor pretended to be conservative herself.

"You know what I want? I want a Sacred Heart of Jesus flag, because I have to look across the lagoon at the Pride flag for the next month," Martha-Ann Alito said.

Homophobes taking issue with the Pride flag, even to the point where it consumes all their thoughts and they lose their minds at the mere sight of one, is nothing new. They like to act as if having to see any proof of LGBTQ+ people existing and being accepted in society means queer sexuality is being shoved down their throats, a criticism that oddly enough doesn't seem to extend to most other things they may encounter in the wild.

When asked about Martha-Ann Alito's rant on CNN, Buttigieg did his best to remind people of exactly why we still need visible displays of Pride, in a country where LGBTQ+ rights are still so controversial.

"I’m often reminded that the most important thing in my life — which is my marriage and my family and the two beautiful children that my husband Chasten and I are raising," he said. "That marriage only exists by the grace of a single vote on the United States Supreme Court that expanded our rights and freedoms back in 2015 and made it possible for somebody like me to get married."

Alito himself was one of the justices who voted against legalizing same-sex marriage, and was caught on tape himself agreeing with the idea that Christians need to fight "to return our country to a place of godliness."

— (@)

Windsor told Politico that she spoke to Martha-Ann Alito in the hopes of "trying to get further evidence of bias in [her husband's] decision making," following recent controversies related to the couple flying flags associated with insurrectionists and Christian nationalism outside of their home.

"You know, Supreme Court justices have an unbelievable amount of power," Buttigieg continued. "And by the nature and the structure of the Supreme Court, there’s no supervision over that power. They are entrusted with it literally for as long as they live. And part of that trust is we expect them to enter into those enormously consequential decisions that shape our everyday lives with a sense of fairness."

Questioning whether Justice Alito is overwhelmed by his bias, and how his wife plays into that, certainly has merit. And Martha-Ann Alito threw more fuel on the fire during the recording when she continued her rant, insisting that as soon as her husband was no longer on the court, she would put up flags and "send them a message every day, maybe every week, I'll be changing the flags." She also described wanting to fly a flag she made up on her own, to send the message of "shame, shame, shame on you."

While folks like the Alitos might want to focus on their freedom to fly whatever flags they like, the same as others are free to fly Pride flags, Buttigieg had one closing thought for people forming their own opinions about the situation.

"I also hope that most Americans can understand the difference between a flag that symbolizes love and acceptance and signals to people who have sometimes feared for their safety that they’re going to be okay and insurrectionist symbology," he said. "I’ll just leave it at that."