Former Vice President Mike Pence is under fire for making homophobic jokes about Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg’s parental leave and postpartum depression. At the annual Gridiron Club dinner on Saturday night, Pence joked that Buttigieg’s two months of “maternity leave” to adopt newborn twins in 2021 with his husband led to transportation woes nationwide last year. He also made an inappropriate joke about postpartum depression, saying “Pete is the only person in human history to have a child and everyone else gets postpartum depression.”
The White House condemned Pence’s remarks, calling them offensive and inappropriate. The press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre stated that “he should apologize to women and LGBTQ people, who are entitled to be treated with dignity and respect.” Even Buttigieg’s husband, Chasten, rebuked Pence on Twitter with a photo of the transportation secretary holding one of their newborns in the hospital.
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Pence has not publicly responded to the criticism, but his former chief of staff, Marc Short, dismissed the White House’s demand for an apology. Short pointed to remarks from Secretary of State Antony Blinken reportedly made at the dinner, saying Blinken, who is Jewish and the stepson of a Holocaust survivor, “joked that he yearned for ‘the old days’ when ‘Jews did all the work.'”
This incident highlights the ongoing cultural and political divide in the United States. Buttigieg, who is openly gay, has been a vocal critic of Pence’s conservative views on LGBTQ issues, particularly during his bid for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination. While they had a cordial relationship when they overlapped in Indiana’s politics for four years, Buttigieg’s campaign memoir described their relationship as “complicated” as he emerged as a voice for LGBTQ equality and religious tolerance on the campaign trail.
The controversy also brings attention to issues related to parental leave and postpartum depression, which are important concerns for both women and LGBTQ individuals. With the White House condemning the jokes made by Pence, it is clear that there is a growing push for more acceptance and respect for marginalized groups.
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