The superdelegate who was outed

last updated 8 January 2015

Jason Rae has gotten an early lesson in the pitfalls of politics, says Ian Daly in Details. Earlier this year, as Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama fought fiercely for the Democratic presidential nomination, the Marquette University student made headlines as the nation’s youngest superdelegate. Just 21, Rae was courted actively, meeting personally with both candidates and fielding calls from major Democratic figures such as Madeleine Albright and John Kerry. But though he became a campus celebrity and a frequent presence on cable news, there was one thing he didn’t talk about: the fact that he was gay. He did join the Democratic National Committee’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Caucus, but he says he still considered his sexuality nobody’s business. But then, in February, the DNC released the names and committee affiliations of all of the superdelegates—effectively outing him. Rae was mortified, because he had not yet talked about his orientation with his own parents. “I was like, ‘Hey, soooo … we need to talk,’” he says he told them over the phone. “I was glad I wasn’t home when I told them.” Rae’s mom and dad took the news in stride, he says. “They weren’t angry. They were just upset that I told the DNC before I told them.”