Pete Buttigieg, the transportation secretary, mentioned on Saturday that he and his husband, Chasten, had been now the mother and father of two kids, making him the primary overtly homosexual cupboard secretary to turn out to be a dad or mum whereas in workplace.
“We’re delighted to welcome Penelope Rose and Joseph August Buttigieg to our household,” Mr. Buttigieg, 39, said in a statement on social media, sharing {a photograph} of his daughter and son for the primary time since announcing last month that the couple had been finishing the method of changing into mother and father.
Within the picture, the couple, seated on a hospital mattress, are smiling as they every cradle a new child. The Buttigieges didn’t reply to a telephone name looking for remark and have supplied few different particulars about their kids.
Mr. Buttigieg surfaced in nationwide politics when he entered the presidential race in 2019 as mayor of South Bend, Ind. This yr, Mr. Buttigieg and Chasten, 32, relocated to Washington after Mr. Buttigieg grew to become transportation secretary, making him the primary overtly homosexual cupboard member to be confirmed by the Senate. He’s additionally the youngest member of President Biden’s cupboard.
Mr. Buttigieg and Chasten, a former center faculty instructor, wed in 2018. Since Mr. Buttigieg entered the nationwide highlight, they’ve usually sought to upend perceptions of homosexual relationships.
“Persons are accustomed to politics wanting a distinct means, and also you’re right here to ensure that, , it may well look a distinct means,” Chasten said in an interview with The New York Occasions this spring.
The couple had been exploring adoption in latest months. Chasten, who wrote a memoir printed in June about rising up homosexual within the Midwest, additionally lately advised USA Today that the couple was navigating the method of beginning a household.
“We now have fairly a number of associates in our circle who’ve navigated that, so we’ve simply been having a variety of conversations with associates and began attempting to determine what’s going to work for us,” he mentioned.
After the couple’s announcement final month, activists mentioned that the Buttigieges might reshape assumptions of homosexual fatherhood.
“As mother and father, they are going to now shine a nationwide highlight on L.G.B.T.Q. households, who usually face daunting challenges due to outdated insurance policies that narrowly outline what households are,” Annise Parker, the president of the Victory Institute, a company that helps put together L.G.B.T.Q. individuals to run for political workplace, mentioned in a press release.
