Educator and activist Chasten Buttigieg—the husband of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg called out Florida Republican Representative Anna Paulina Luna after she complained that Pete Buttigieg "got maternity leave and she didn't."
Pete Buttigieg's high profile as a gay man in one of the government's top positions forced him to respond to attacks against him, his sexuality, his relationship with his husband, and the fact they have children.
The pushback against the Transportation Secretary's decision to take paternity leave has long served as the basis for homophobic and sexist smears from Republicans who've since 2021 accused him of using the birth of his children as an excuse not to address the COVID-19-related supply chain crisis.
Luna suggested Pete Buttigieg's leave is unfair because "he's a dude," adding that Congress should "get with the times."
You can see her post below.
Shortly afterward, Chasten Buttigieg responded with a statement calling out Luna's "homophobia" while noting that parental leave should be a right extended to all:
"Every parent deserves parental leave. Those first weeks are so crucial for parents and newborns. What a shame to see Representative Luna tarnish this bipartisan effort with unnecessary homophobia."
He concluded:
"'Getting with the times' would serve you well, Congresswoman."
You can see his response below.
Many concurred with him about the importance of parental leave for everyone considering the United States lags behind many Western nations that have included parental leave in their social safety nets.
Others criticized Luna more directly.
Conservatives have repeatedly harped on the Transportation Secretary for taking paternity leave, so much so that at one point Fox News printed internal Department of Transportation (DOT) emails, implying Buttigieg was up to no good at a time when it was publicly known he was caring for his newborn children.
Earlier this year, Pete Buttigieg addressed a homophobic, misogynistic and sexist joke former Republican Vice President Mike Pence made at the annual white-tie Gridiron Club Dinner in Washington, D.C. Pence said at the time that the Transportation Secretary "is the only person in human history to have a child and all the rest of us get postpartum depression.”
Pete Buttigieg said he found Pence's joke "strange" because when he'd last run into Pence, the former Vice President "asked me about my kids like a normal person would.”
Chasten Buttigieg also criticized Pence's actions and noted shortly after Pence made his joke that the Transportation Secretary had taken leave in part because one of their children wound up on a ventilator in a pediatric intensive care unit after contracting a respiratory virus.
