Pete Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, has been campaigning for president as an openly gay man. On Tuesday, he was hosting a rally at Iowa when protestors started shouting about Sodom and Gomorrah at him. Sodom and Gomorrah are cities discussed in the Bible, both of which incurred God’s wrath for their sinful activities.
The crowd responded by cheering Buttigieg’s name, drowning out the protests. Buttigieg himself was unaffected by the unwanted visitors, saying, “The good news is, the condition of my soul is in the hands of God, but the Iowa caucuses are up to you.”
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One of the protesters was identified as Randall Terry, a Christian activist best known for founding Operation Rescue, an anti-abortion rights group. According to the organization, it parted ways with Terry over two decades ago because of how radical he had become. According to CNN’s Jeff Zeleny, Terry and his protestors interrupted Buttigieg on three occasions:
As seen in a video of the event, one of the hecklers yelled, “Remember Sodom and Gomorrah” while pointing at the Democrat candidate and calling him a “baby killer.”
Buttigieg’s previous rallies have featured protestors too. Earlier in the day, another man had confronted the South Bend mayor about the concept of same-sex marriage. “Grandparents, do you want your grandchildren following his example?” the man had asked to an audience that was booing him. “God loves us, but he stands for the murder of unborn babies!”
Buttigieg was unfazed as the protestor was escorted off the property. “Coffee after church gets a little rowdy sometimes,” the Democrat joked. “That gentleman believes that what he is doing is in line with the will of the creator. I view it differently. We ought to be able to view it differently.”
