The 2020 presidential race just got a lot more queer

Democratic candidates vying for their party’s nomination to take on President Donald Trump in the 2020 election will take part in an LGBTQ forum in Iowa.

“This event will focus on LGBTQ people living in the heartland and their needs,” One Iowa Interim Executive Director Courtney Reyes said. “The overarching narrative that LGBTQ people in the U.S live in urban coastal areas ignores the millions of LGBTQ individuals living and working in the middle of the country.”

Each candidate will have individual stage time to address the audience, followed by a one-on-one moderated Q&A session with Gazette political reporter James Q. Lynch, Stafford, and One Iowa Director of Policy and Advocacy Keenan Crow.

HRC (Human Rights Campaign) is using the DNC’s (Democratic National Committee) guidelines for inviting candidates to the debate, which requires them to receive donations from 65,000 people across 20 different states or receive 1 percent or higher support in three national polls.

Nowadays the first openly gay politician to run for president, South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg from Indiana, has said he’s met the donor threshold to be included in the debates.