6 days ago
- Entertainment
- San Francisco Chronicle
Chasten Buttigieg reveals how he really feels about Pete's beard and family life
Before wrapping up my interview with Chasten Buttigieg, I had to ask the big question on everyone's mind.
'I love the beard,' Buttigieg joked, referring to his husband, former Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg's newish facial hair.
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Papa's Coming Home
By Chasten Buttigieg
(Penguin Random House; 40 pages; $19.99)
Chasten is funny and theater-kid quick, which makes it easy to imagine him and his verbally dynamic husband — the first openly gay man to run for the Democratic Party nomination for president in 2020 — bantering onstage at a joint book event should the once 'Mayor Pete' decide to retire from politics.
But I wasn't asking about the beard. I was actually asking if Pete Buttigieg had decided to run for president again in 2028. (I'll give you his answer later.)
Chasten Buttigieg, 35, the bestselling author and former junior high humanities teacher, was in San Francisco ahead of a talk at Kepler's Books in Menlo Park with writer and 826 Valencia cofounder Dave Eggers on May 27. His latest, 'Papa's Coming Home' (Penguin Random House, $19.99), had just come out on May 20, and is now No. 4 on the New York Times bestseller list. It's among the first children's books with same-sex parents to earn that distinction.
He'd just gotten off a plane from Traverse City, Mich. where he and his husband purchased a home in 2020. The couple live near Chasten's parents, who help take care of the Buttigiegs' twins, Gus and Penelope, who turn 4 in August.
The couple adopted the twins in 2021, and they are why Chasten undertook the project. He wanted to create a book with a family that looked like theirs with two fathers and children of different races from their parents.
'They can literally see themselves in the story,' said Chasten of the illustrations by Dan Taylor, which resemble the family. 'I do wonder why it seems that Pete's a little sexier and I'm a little geekier, but that's OK.'
'Papa's Coming Home' tells the story of Jojo and Rosie (who represent Gus and Penelope), their dog Buddy and their Daddy and Papa (Chasten and Pete). The children are excited Papa is returning and eagerly pack all the comforts they think he's missed into the family car before picking him up at the airport.
'Papa' follows Buttigieg's bestselling 2020 memoir, 'I Have Something to Tell You,' and its young adult adaptation.
It also comes at a fraught time for LGBTQ literature in the United States. According to PEN America, a nonprofit organization whose goal is to raise awareness for the protection of free expression, books about LGBTQ people and characters accounted for 39%of the titles banned in U.S. public schools during the 2023–2024 school year.
'When we talk about book bans, or folks not embracing books like this, I just don't believe that our country is full of bad people,' said Chasten. 'I believe that, unfortunately, our politics have been hijacked by some really bad actors who have figured out that it is more lucrative to go to Washington and be an influencer rather than a legislator.'
Chasten points out that while his book features same-sex parents, the focus is not on LGBTQ identity.
'This book is a very simple, sweet story about toddlers at their best and their goofiest,' he said.
How incidental the same-sex parents are to the story feels not only appropriate in 2025 but also true to the experience of children in such families. One of the other themes of the book, it must be noted, is transportation. Both the family car and Papa's arriving flight at the airport play central roles — not surprising given Secretary Pete's role in the Biden cabinet and the couple's personal history.
'One of the things I've been so surprised to hear on the book tour is the amount of people who come to the book talk and say 'thank you so much for writing a book that normalizes' and 'I'm waiting for them to mention families like ours,' and they say 'traveling parents.' So many books have two parents at home and a lot of families have a parent who travels for work. I've met so many straight couples who love that this book talks about parent traveling,' Chasten said.
'Travel has always been the core of our relationship,' he noted. 'Pete and I met at O'Hare (Airport), and he proposed to me at O'Hare.'
So, will there be more travel in the family's future, perhaps on a campaign trail? Secretary Buttigieg did just give a rousing speech in Iowa that seemed like a warm-up to the state's next caucus in 2028, and he has declined to run for senator or governor in Michigan.
'I just don't want to think about it right now. I'm not ready to,' said Chasten. 'I think he's brilliant, and I love him very much. But I also think he needs to enjoy being a dad for a while. Being in this moment right now where there's really no phone call coming that's more important than sitting down and eating with your family is a really special place to be.'
