Chasten Buttigieg is 29 years old. It would be a bit hard to explain in 2004 or 2008 or even 2012 that "there's this guy running for president who has a youngish husband and nobody treats it as weird or controversial." I'm not saying anti-gay bigotry (any more than misogyny or anti-Kenyan racism) has faded from this great land of ours (MAGA!) but it's progress that the mainstream press, at least, does not frame every story about Buttigieg as being about his controversial gayness.
And, yes, objectitudinal journalists decide what is controversial or not with every story they file.