Mike Pence made a homophobic attack in the midst of his roasts at last week’s Gridiron Dinner. The dinner is an annual white-tie event full of fellow politicians and journalists. According to The Washington Post, Pence tried to poke fun at Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg who took paternity leave (which he was entitled to) when he and his husband adopted twins in 2021.
“When Pete’s two children were born, he took two months’ maternity leave whereupon thousands of travelers were stranded in airports, the air traffic system shut down, and airplanes nearly collided on our runways,” Pence claimed in his homophobic joke. “Pete is the only person in human history to have a child, and everyone else gets postpartum depression.” Intentionally misgendering gay men and portraying them as effeminate and less manly is a common trope of homophobic humor. It not only disparages the LGBTQ community, but also makes femininity seem inferior to masculinity.
The Post also reported that White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre called on the former VP to apologize. She called the jokes “offensive and inappropriate. She also said that the remarks “treated women suffering from postpartum depression as a punchline.”
Similarly, Pete Buttigieg’s husband, Chasten Buttigieg, called out Pence on Twitter, asking the VP what he would do in the same situation. “An honest question for you, @Mike_Pence, after your attempted joke this weekend,” Chasten Buttigieg tweeted. “If your grandchild was born prematurely and placed on a ventilator at two months old…where would you be?”
According to NBC News, at an event in Keene, New Hampshire to speak to Cheshire County Republicans as he contemplates the terrifying prospect of a 2024 presidential run, Pence doubled down on his joke, accusing the Transportation Secretary of being too sensitive. “The Gridiron Dinner is a roast, and I had a lot of jokes directed to me. I directed a lot of jokes to Republicans and Democrats,” Pence says at the New Hampshire event. He then claimed that Buttigieg “can’t take a joke.”
Gay men have been the subject of jokes like these for years. In refusing to apologize to Buttigieg, Pence sends a clear message that he doesn’t care about the LGBTQ community.
