for secretary of transportation pete buttigieg fatherhood and politics are not mutually exclusive since buttigieg and his husband chasten adopted newborn twins in 2021 the democrat and his family have been repeatedly criticized and mocked by republicans including former vice president mike pence most recently pence made what the white house described as a homophobic joke about buttigieg taking parental leave when petes two children were born he took two months maternity leave whereupon thousands of travelers were stranded in airports the air traffic system shut down and airplanes nearly collided on our runways pence reportedly said at the annual gridiron dinner for journalists and politicians in washington dc on march 11 pete is the only person in human history to have a child and everyone else gets postpartum depression more white house demands pence apologize for homophobic joke aimed at buttigieg pence who is considering a 2024 presidential run has since refused to apologize and even doubled down on his controversial remarks the gridiron dinner is a roast he told reporters at a gop dinner in new hampshire on march 17 i had a lot of jokes directed to me and i directed a lot of jokes to republicans and democrats the only thing i can figure is pete buttigieg not only cant do his job but he cant take a joke in an interview airing monday on abc news life out loud with lz granderson podcast buttigieg said such attacks would bother him more if he wasnt being daily reminded of what was so important dont get me wrong it is galling for people especially people who go on television talking about family values and then when your actual family is struggling they use it as a way to attack you or as a political football the secretary said dont get me wrong that definitely gets to you at some level but at another level you realize that thats just politics more no apology from pence after homophobic joke chasten buttigieg says the buttigiegs twin children penelope rose and joseph august gus became sick with respiratory syncytial virus rsv as premature infants both babies had to be hospitalized and put on oxygen they have since fully recovered and are now healthy 19montholds when youre facetoface with a lifeordeath struggle involving a child and that comes out ok it becomes less important to you that the political game comes out ok buttigieg said because if you got to choose between one of those things working out its an easy choice the things you want and need most to work out is the wellbeing of your family and it allows you to remember that so much of the rest is noise it doesnt make it ok and there are different ways in the political and the policy space that so many families are under attack right now and yet when you can put it in that kind of perspective at least in our journey in our path it was one