As a result of the February 26 primary election in Chicago, voters have the choice between two female black candidates for mayor, guaranteeing a “historic first” female black mayor. The primary was “non-partisan,” aka a “jungle primary,” meaning that the top two vote-getters out of a field of 9 candidates, regardless of party affiliation, face the electorate.

The two final candidates are Toni Preckwinkle, the powerful president of the Cook County Board, and Lori Lightfoot, lawyer and former president of the Chicago Police Board, where she aggressively pursued police misconduct, including the notorious shooting of Laquan McDonald, which may have propelled her to first place in the primary vote.

Source: Wikipedia

In the mayor debate last week, something happened to lead candidate Lightfoot to cry “foul!” as the Chicago Tribune reports:

Attorney Lori Lightfoot on Monday questioned why Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle brought up her sexual orientation in response to a question in last week’s Chicago mayoral debate.

Lightfoot, a former federal prosecutor who is openly gay, was asked about Preckwinkle’s answer to a question in which both candidates were asked what they admired about the other, and the county’s leader applauded her opponent’s openness about her sexual orientation. Lightfoot wondered aloud whether Preckwinkle’s response was “blowing a dog whistle” to conservative voters in a campaign where both candidates have been negative about each other.

“Well, look, coming in the context of a clear strategy to be as negative against me as possible, I can only hope she wasn’t blowing some kind of dog whistle,” Lightfoot said.

When Preckwinkle was asked about the debate exchange and whether she was directing a “dog whistle” toward conservative voters, she told reporters Monday, “That’s ridiculous. I’ve always been a strong supporter of the LGBTQ community, I have members of that community on my staff in my campaign and my government office.”

Preckwinkle’s initial comments came near the end of the Thursday NBC 5-Telemundo debate when moderator Carol Marin asked each candidate to talk about something she admired about the other.

According to the rules of “intersectionality,” Lightfoot trumps Preckwinkle, a threefer (black, female, lesbian) outranking a twofer. So, why would Preckwinkle raise the subject? Maybethis report from the National Institute of Health has something to do with it?

The proportion of African Americans who indicated that homosexuality was “always wrong” was 72.3% in 2008, largely unchanged since the 1970s. In contrast, among white respondents, this figure declined from 70.8% in 1973 to 51.6% in 2008, with most change occurring since the early 1990s. Participants who knew a gay person were less likely to have negative attitudes toward homosexuality (RR=0.60, 95% CI: 0.52–0.69). Among MSM, twice as many African American MSM reported that homosexuality is “always wrong” compared to white MSM (57.1% vs. 26.8%, p=0.003). MSM with unfavorable attitudes toward homosexuality were less likely to report ever testing for HIV compared to MSM with more favorable attitudes (RR=0.50, 95% CI: 0.31–0.78).

Intersectionality sounds great to lefties in the abstract, but push comes to shove in a city where politics is a blood sport, it does have its limits.