WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Chasten Buttigieg, the husband of U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, said on Friday that the couple’s infant son Gus had been released from the hospital and had been on a ventilator for a week.
The couple, who adopted Penelope Rose and Joseph August in August, had posted a picture of themselves with a baby in a hospital on Halloween.
“After 3 weeks in and out of hospitals, 125 miles in an ambulance, and a terrifying week on a ventilator, Gus is home, smiling, and doing great!” Chasten Buttigieg said on Twitter on Friday.
Buttigieg told ABC last month “It’s such an incredible blessing. We didn’t know that it was going to be twins until about 24 hours ahead of time but they have brought just such joy to our lives.”
Chasten did not say what the baby was being treated for. A Transportation Department spokeswoman declined to comment.
When he was overwhelmingly confirmed by the Senate as Biden’s transportation secretary, supporters credited Pete Buttigieg with shattering a centuries-old political barrier for LGBTQ Americans.
Some Republicans and some conservative pundits attacked Buttigieg recently for talking paid paternity leave. He has made the case that the U.S. government needs to guarantee paid leave for all new parents.
“This is work. My work day as secretary of transportation starts at a relatively normal hour. My work day as a dad starts at about 3 in the morning when Chasten finally hits the sack and it’s my turn to start that first feeding,” Buttigieg said last month.
(Reporting by Diane Bartz and David Shepardson; Editing by David Gregorio)
