Back in March, Indiana made waves over its controversial Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which allowed business owners to refuse service to LGBTQ people on the basis of religion.

Today (June 16), Pete Buttigieg, the 33-year-old mayor of South Bend, Indiana, bravely came out in an op-ed he wrote for the South Bend Tribune in order to speak out on behalf of the LGBT community.

"Putting something this personal on the pages of a newspaper does not come easy," Buggigieg wrote. "We Midwesterners are instinctively private to begin with, and I’m not used to viewing this as anyone else’s business."

"But it’s clear to me that at a moment like this, being more open about it could do some good," he continued. "For a local student struggling with her sexuality, it might be helpful for an openly gay mayor to send the message that her community will always have a place for her. And for a conservative resident from a different generation, whose unease with social change is partly rooted in the impression that he doesn’t know anyone gay, perhaps a familiar face can be a reminder that we’re all in this together as a community."

In addition to offering solidarity to other gay Hoosiers, Buttigieg spoke out the fight for equality.

"Any day now, the Supreme Court will issue a decision on same-sex marriage that will directly affect millions of Americans," he wrote. "It comes at a time of growing public acceptance and support for equal rights. But no matter what the Court does, issues of equality are hardly settled across the country. Today it remains legal in most parts of Indiana (though not South Bend) to fire someone simply for being gay, and bullying still contributes to tragically high suicide rates among LGBT teens."

He also wrote about how far we've come.

"My high school in South Bend had nearly a thousand students," he wrote. "Statistically, that means that several dozen were gay or lesbian. Yet when I graduated in 2000, I had yet to encounter a single openly LGBT student there."

"That’s far less likely to be the case now," he wrote, "as more students come to feel that their families and community will support and care for them no matter what. This is a tremendously positive development: young people who feel support and acceptance will be less likely to harm themselves, and more likely to step into adulthood with mature self-knowledge."

Ultimately, his message was hopeful.

"Like most people, I would like to get married one day and eventually raise a family," he wrote. "I hope that when my children are old enough to understand politics, they will be puzzled that someone like me revealing he is gay was ever considered to be newsworthy. By then, all the relevant laws and court decisions will be seen as steps along the path to equality."