Pete and Chasten Buttigieg announce they are parents

Aug. 17 (UPI) -- Pete Buttigieg announced Tuesday that he and husband, Chasten Buttigieg, have welcomed a child into their family.

Pete, the head of the Department of Transportation and the first openly gay Cabinet secretary, said the adoption process is not yet done but "we're overjoyed to share that we've become parents!"

The news comes after Chasten told The Washington Post late last month that they have been trying to adopt for a year and have participated in home studies and parenting workshops.

He told The Post that they had been added to a list to that would allow them to adopt children who had been abandoned or surrendered with little notice and through a longer process that included choose them anonymously.

In the tweet on Tuesday, Pete said that they had for some time now "wanted to grow our family."

The Victory Institute, which seeks to increase the number of LGBT public officials, said in a statement that the pair "upended stereotypes and transformed perceptions" of millions of Americans during his presidential campaign ahead of November's general election and they will continue to do so through their adoption.

"As parents, they will now shine a national spotlight on LGBTQ families, who often face daunting challenges because of outdated policies that narrowly define what families are," Mayor Annise Parker, president and chief executive of LGBTQ Victory Institute, said in a statement. "Their adoption is an opportunity to have a national dialogue about creating a legal and legislative framework that supports all parents and children."

Pete and Chasten were married in 2018.