Chasten Buttigieg is criticizing a remark made by a far-right member of the House Freedom Caucus, U.S. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL), for its “unnecessary homophobia.”
Congresswoman Luna has been endorsed by then-President Donald Trump, U.S. Reps. Matt Gaetz and Marjorie Taylor Greene, and far-right Christian nationalist Charlie Kirk who heads the activist group Turning Point USA, which Luna belonged to.
When Republicans won the House of Representatives, one of the first acts then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy did in 2023 was to remove proxy voting, where members can allow other members to vote on their behalf if they cannot be present. Speaker Nancy Pelosi instituted the policy during the COVID pandemic, and although it was supposed to be used only during times of illness, some Republicans were caught attending fundraisers and conventions instead of being in Washington, D.C. to vote.
“Republicans sued over proxy voting in the pandemic. Now they’re using it to speak at CPAC,” was a USA Today headline in 2021.
Now, Congresswoman Luna wants proxy voting back, but only for new mothers.
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“Congress was made for and by old men so it’s no surprise that @RepLuna and I are two of the only women of reproductive age here,” declared California Democratic Congresswoman Sara Jacobs on Thursday, who teamed up with Luna to introduce “a bipartisan resolution to allow Members to proxy vote for 6 weeks after giving birth and make the House more parent-friendly.”
NBC News adds that the “legislation is narrowly written to apply only to a ‘member who has recently given birth,’ intentionally excluding new mothers who have a baby via surrogate or choose to adopt and men who have children while serving in Congress. (That became an issue right at the beginning of this session when McCarthy needed votes to become speaker and Rep. Wesley Hunt, a freshman Republican from Texas, missed two rounds of voting after his son was born prematurely.)”
Despite sponsoring the bipartisan resolution on the nonpartisan issue, Congresswoman Luna immediately turned it into a partisan attack.
“Pete Buttigieg got maternity leave and I didn’t. And he’s a dude. It’s time Congress gets with the times,” she wrote on X.
Transportation Secretary Buttigieg and his husband, Chasten Buttigieg, announced they had welcomed newborn twins into their family in August of 2021.
Secretary Buttigieg does not have the ability to cast votes in the House because he is not a U.S. Congressman, so the premise of Luna’s claim is inaccurate. What Luna is attempting to put into law is proxy voting, not parental leave.
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Members of Congress can take parental leave, if their Office has a policy that supports it. Each congressional office makes its own policies. As a Member of Congress, Rep. Luna could have instituted parental leave. By law, federal employees, including Cabinet Secretaries and congressional staffers (not members of Congress) are entitled to up to 12 weeks of paid family leave.
Chasten Buttigieg blasted Congresswoman Luna’s social media attack.
“Every parent deserves parental leave,” Buttigieg, a teacher, author, and activist wrote. “Those first weeks are so crucial for parents and newborns. What a shame to see Representative Luna tarnish this bipartisan effort with unnecessary homophobia. ‘Getting with the times’ would serve you well, Congresswoman.”