Climate change forum loses sponsor after dispute over story

ELANA SCHOR
Democratic presidential candidate South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg campaigns at the Revolution Taproom & Grill, Friday, July 12, 2019, in Rochester, N.H. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

NEW YORK (AP) — A planned forum on climate change for Democratic presidential candidates is short of several major sponsors after one backer published a vulgar and homophobic story related to gay presidential contender Pete Buttigieg.

The left-leaning magazine The New Republic was slated as a chief sponsor of the September climate change event during a U.N. climate summit. But after the magazine pulled down its Friday article about Buttigieg, The New Republic as well as three top sponsors bowed out of the forum.

Another sponsor of the summit, Gizmodo Media Group, wrote Saturday that the forum itself is still scheduled to take place on Sept. 23 in New York.

A spokesman for Buttigieg's campaign declined to comment on The New Republic story, which is called "an opinion piece."