Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg’s decision to go on paternity leave to care for his recently adopted twins drew a barrage of bigoted, homophobia-tinged attacks by right-wing pundits, including Fox News personality Tucker Carlson who told his viewers that Buttigieg and his husband took paternity leave to try and “figure out how to breastfeed.” “No word on how that went,” Tucker mockingly added in the Thursday night Fox News segment.
Buttigieg, the first openly LGBT+ person to lead one of the 15 cabinet departments, drew attacks from the right-wing outrage machine after Politico noted that the secretary had spent recent weeks away from his Department of Transportation office, an absence the White House attributed to parental leave