U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg on Sunday made the case to safeguard “marriages like mine” while criticizing Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) for saying voting to protect same-sex marriage is a “stupid waste of time.”
“If he’s got time to fight against Disney,” Sec. Buttigieg told CNN’s Jake Tapper on Sunday, when asked his reaction to Rubio’s “waste of time” comment. “I don’t know why he wouldn’t have time to help safeguard marriages like mine. But this is really, really important to a lot of people. It’s certainly important to me.”
“I started my day as I tried to do on weekends, I tried to give Chasten a little bit of a break and do breakfast with both of our our twins,” Secretary Buttigieg said, sharing a personal moment, referring to his husband and their two children. “And that alone is no small thing as every parent with small kids knows.”
“It was one of those days where the tray table wasn’t quite fitting into the highchair and I’m trying to make sure that they’re busy enough with their little cereal puffs to give me enough time to chop up the banana and get the formula ready. And it just, I don’t know that half hour in the morning had me thinking about how much I depend on and count on my spouse every day.”
“Our marriage deserves to be treated equally. And I don’t know why this would be hard for a senator or a congressman. I don’t understand how such a majority of House Republicans voted no on our marriage as recently as Tuesday, hours after I was in a room with a lot of them, talking about transportation policy, having what I thought were perfectly normal conversations with many of them on that subject only for them to go around the corner and say that the my marriage doesn’t deserve to continue.”
In response to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’ strong urging his colleagues “correct the error” of cases that found a constitutional right to same-sex marriage, same-sex intimate relations, and contraception, Speaker Nancy Pelosi has prioritized legislation to protect those rights under federal law.
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“If they don’t want to spend a lot of time on this they can vote ‘yes’ and move on,” Buttigieg added. “And that would be really reassuring for a lot of families around America, including mine.”
On Tuesday the House voted 267-157 to pass a bill protecting existing same-sex marriages under state and federal law. All 157 “no” votes came from Republicans.
Watch Secretary Buttigieg below or at this link: