Sen. Chuck Schumer's Lesbian Daughter and Her Wife Welcome Son

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has a new grandson, the child of his lesbian daughter, Alison Schumer, and her wife, Elizabeth Weiland.

“Joy to the world!” the New York Democrat posted on Twitter Monday. “Elizabeth and Alison, my daughter-in-law and daughter, gave birth to beautiful Henry on Thursday, our third grandchild!”

Alison Schumer, the younger of the senator’s two daughters, and Weiland married in 2018. Henry is their first child. His other daughter, Jessica Schumer, and her husband, Michael Shapiro, have two children.

Sen. Schumer had expressed fears about the future of Alison’s marriage after the death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in 2020, knowing that the progressive justice would likely be replaced by an opponent of marriage equality (and she was, by Amy Coney Barrett). His daughter and her wife asked, “Could their right to marry be undone?” he said in a Senate speech.

Then, when the court’s conservative majority overturned Roe v. Wade last year, Justice Clarence Thomas said he’d like to overturn Obergefell v. Hodges, the decision that established nationwide marriage equality in 2015. In response, Congress passed the Respect for Marriage Act, protecting marriage equality no matter what the court does, and President Joe Biden signed it into law. After the Senate approved the legislation, Schumer’s first call was to Amy and her wife.

“I just called my daughter and her wife — who are expecting a baby next spring — to let them know that this Senate passed the Respect for Marriage Act! What a great day!” he tweeted in November.

The birth announcement drew a few hateful comments on Twitter, some of them anti-LGBTQ+ and others citing the senator’s support of abortion rights, as if that would mean forcing anyone to have an abortion. But the majority of comments were congratulatory. “Henry is lucky to have you as his grandpa,” one wrote.