US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg’s husband is engaged in an online battle with the founder of the Libs of Tik Tok account after she was appointed to a school library panel in the state of Oklahoma, a political position.
Chasten Buttigieg criticized Libs founder Chaya Raichik for lacking the necessary qualifications for her to sit on the state’s library advisory committee.
Riachik was appointed by the Oklahoma State Superintendent of Public Institutions to oversee the public school library’s contents despite having no qualifications in education or library science.
Buttigieg, 34, suggested that Raichik, 29, who runs the far-right and anti-LGBT social media account, was not qualified to hold such a position, quite apart from the fact that she doesn’t even live in the state of Oklahoma, but rather Los Angeles, 1,500 miles away.
Chasten Buttigieg, the husband of US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, is engaged in an online dispute with Chaya Raichik, the founder of Libs of TikTok
Raichik was appointed to a school library panel in Oklahoma, where Buttigieg criticized her for lacking educational qualifications and living in California
Buttigieg emphasized the danger of appointing people with anti-LGBTQ+ views to education policy positions
Raichik was quick to retaliate, branding him a ‘child hairdresser’
The video clip, which is from an Amazon Prime documentary, Mayor Pete
The video shows him making children pledge allegiance to LGBTQ pride flags
The documentary sees Buttigieg in a classroom full of teenagers at Iowa’s Safe Schools Pride Camp in 2019
Buttigieg made a point of highlighting how she lives in California, has no degrees in library science, education or has any classroom experience.
‘As a parent and former teacher, I want qualified people involved in education. This is actually quite simple. Chaya is not qualified for his appointed government position. She doesn’t live in Oklahoma. Has no training in education. Zero classroom experience. The rest is theatrical,’ he wrote.
‘Placing people who have openly attacked LGBTQ+ rights in positions that influence education policy sends a dangerous message. It undermines the very foundation of what education should be – a place of safety, growth and inclusiveness.’
It didn’t take long for Raichik to blast him in a tweet, accusing him of being a ‘children’s hairdresser’, along with a video showing him making children pledge allegiance to the LGBTQ pride flag.
Transport Secretary Pete Buttigieg, left, is seen with his husband Chasten Buttigieg in October 2023
Pete Buttigieg kisses his husband Chasten after a speech in 2020
‘A current government member’s husband has publicly blasted a citizen journalist because I post tiktoks that he doesn’t like and doesn’t want kids getting sunburned at school. Does anyone else find this alarming?’ she asked.
She continued: ‘Chasten Buttigieg, Pete Buttigieg’s husband is attacking me because he feels threatened by LoTT’s mission to expose child hairdressers like him. He doesn’t want you to see this video of him kids ‘pledge allegiance to the rainbow’ and LGBTQ pride, so definitely don’t share it!’
The clip, which is from an Amazon Prime documentary, Mayor Pete, sees Buttigieg in a classroom full of teenagers at Iowa’s Safe Schools Pride Camp in 2019.
He encourages them to recite his ‘pledge’ to the iconic flag: ‘I pledge my heart to the rainbow, the not-so-typical gay camp. One camp, full of pride, indivisible with affirmation and equal rights for all.’
Raichik persisted as she suggested that Chasten’s husband, Pete Buttigieg, was hired simply because he is gay and was purely a ‘diversity hire’ for the Biden administration.
Brandon Wold, National Press Secretary at the Human Right Campaign described her as nothing more than an ‘internet troll’
‘Speaking of qualifications for a government position, your husband Pete Buttigieg only got the job as transport secretary because he is gay. Pete is a diversity hire and has no qualifications to be Secretary of Transportation. We all know that,’ suggested Raichik.
The back and forth between Raichik and Buttigieg has called into question her suitability for the role the state of Oklahoma has appointed her to.
Brandon Wold, the national press secretary at the Human Rights Campaign, described her as nothing more than an ‘internet troll’.
‘All Chaya Raichik knows is tossing grand platitudes that spit in the faces of survivors of actual abuse and slather on clickbait anti-LGBTQ+ hysteria. She leaves nothing but poisonous lies, hate and harassment in her wake,’ Wolf wrote on X.
‘Aren’t you a political appointee, a job you’re totally unfit for? I find that alarming, he added.
In the past, Raichik has claimed that her account merely spreads awareness that left-wing ideologies are being implemented in classrooms and online.
In 2022, her account got a big boost from podcast host Joe Rogan, who called it ‘one of the greatest f**king accounts ever’, just months into its existence as a liberal clearinghouse.
Raichik’s account started as TikTok and became popular during the pandemic when she stumbled upon content from the far left.
Now she wants to help ‘educate people’ and create legislation to combat the things she reposts on her account.