Chasten Buttigieg, husband of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, called GOP Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel "hypocritical" after she tweeted about LGBTQ Pride Month.
McDaniel wrote in a tweet last week that the Republican Party is "proud to have doubled our LGBTQ support over the last 4 years, and we will continue to grow our big tent by supporting measures that promote fairness and balance protections for LGBTQ Americans and those with deeply held religious beliefs."
Buttigieg challenged McDaniel's sentiment, writing that people with "deeply held religious beliefs" are "often the parents who force their LGBTQ children out of the home and onto the street."
"Re-visit your party's platform before you open your mouth about #pride," he wrote.
Buttigieg expanded on his tweet in an interview with MSNBC on Monday, noting that the Republican Party platform still opposes marriage equality.
"Our community is consistently under attack, and when I saw the chairwoman's tweet, I had to say something," he said on "Morning Joe."
"I think that kind of language is hypocritical, and it's dangerous. And I want to be clear: I don't think all people with deeply held religious beliefs are homophobic, and I know many LGBTQ people who consider themselves to be deeply religious."
Buttigieg added that McDaniel's language sends the message that the Republican Party "will tolerate the LGBTQ community, but we're also going to tolerate the people who would like to deny you housing, deny you civil rights."
The Republican National Committee did not immediately respond to NBC News' request for comment.
So far in 2021, Republican leaders have introduced more than 100 bills targeting the LGBTQ community, particularly transgender young people.
Buttigieg said that prior to moving to Washington, D.C., with his husband, he didn't consider himself a "political person."
"But now that we're here and I've found myself with this platform, I don't think I can just sit quietly and watch our community consistently be attacked by people like the chairwoman," he said on "Morning Joe."
Buttigieg's book, "I Have Something to Tell You," a memoir about growing up gay in rural Michigan, was released in paperback last week, the start of Pride Month.
"I came out in conservative, rural, northern Michigan," he told ABC's "Good Morning America" on Saturday. "I didn't know anything about being gay. I thought I was the only one. And I wanted to write a book that was very vulnerable and very candid because I wanted other young people who might be going through something similar to see themselves reflected in the page."
He said he plans to adapt the book for younger audiences soon.
