WASHINGTON — Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz touted his and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris’ LGBTQ rights record Saturday night in a keynote speech at the Human Rights Campaign’s annual gala — and also criticized comments by his Republican opponent, Sen. J.D. Vance, that school shootings are a “fact of life.”
“It’s a fact that some people are gay,” Walz said in his speech. “But you know what’s not a fact? That our children need to be shot in schools.” In Wednesday’s school shooting in Georgia in Apalachee High SchoolTwo students and two teachers died.
Vance, when asked campaigning in Phoenix on Thursday about policies to stop school shootings, he said: “I don’t like it. I don’t like admitting it. I don’t like that it’s a fact of life. But if you’re a psychopath and you want to make headlines, you know our schools are easy targets and we need to make our schools safer.”
The school shooting has renewed calls from Democrats for an assault weapons ban, a push for protected storage of firearms and the passage of red flag laws, which allow a court to temporarily take away firearms from someone who poses a danger to themselves or others.
“Our children should be able to walk freely to school without fear of being shot in the hallway,” Walz said Saturday evening.
In his speech, Walz praised Vice President Harris for her long history of supporting LGBTQ rights, including officiating several of the first weddings in California after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2015 that same-sex marriage was legal.
“This is the most pro-LGBTQ+ administration in American history,” Walz said of Harris and President Joe Biden, noting the passage of The Act on Respect for Marriage, which would ensure that marriages between same-sex and mixed-race couples would continue to be recognized regardless of future U.S. Supreme Court rulings.
When Harris selected Walz as her vice presidential running mate in early August, the Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest LGBTQ rights organization, praised the decision.
“Coach Walz not only embodies the essence of our community, he embodies the essence of our society, what lifts us up, what strengthens us, what unites us,” said Kelley Robinson, president of the Human Rights Campaign, before introducing Walz at the dinner.
Walz has a long history of supporting LGBTQ rights. As a teacher and coach, he said he agreed to serve as an adviser to the gay-straight alliance at the high school where he taught in the tardy 1990s after concerns about bullying of queer students arose.
“I understood what it means to be an older, straight, white guy who coaches football,” he said. “It’s easy to be an ally when it’s easy to be an ally. What really matters is knowing who’s going to be on your side and stand up for you when the going gets tough.”
Congressional Advocacy
Walz said that when he was running for Congress in 2006, he was asked during a debate whether he supported same-sex marriage.
“My marriage to my wife Gwen is the most important thing in my life. I love her deeply. Why would I stop anyone from marrying the person they love?” he said. “It doesn’t make sense.”
He highlighted his work in Congress as one of the first supporters of same-sex marriage and told how voted to repeal the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy towards gays, lesbians and bisexuals in the military.
“Nobody should get credit for doing the right thing,” he said. “For God’s sake, the bar is pretty damn low to treat people like human beings. Equality under the law is not a high bar.”
Walz talked about his work Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009 by Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr.which expands federal hate crimes law to include a crime motivated by a victim’s gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or disability. Matthew Shepard was a college student who was tortured and murdered in Wyoming in 1998 because he was gay.
Walz said he went to the U.S. Capitol for a final vote on the bill, along with Matthew’s mother and the sheriff who found Matthew’s body.
“I remember walking with a mother who had lost her son and hearing the sheriff tell me that the only place that wasn’t blood was the tears streaming down Matthew’s face. I saw a mother, and the incredible pain that I couldn’t fathom, of losing a child like that, walking with her head held high to make sure that none of us ever had to take a phone call from anyone,” Walz told the crowd.
Walz said that when he was elected governor, Minnesota had control of both houses of the state legislature for the first time in more than a decade and moved quickly to pass Democratic legislation.
“You don’t get elected to office to accumulate political capital so you can get reelected,” Walz said. “You get elected to office to burn political capital and improve lives as quickly as possible.”
While governor, Walz signed an executive order protecting access to health care for transgender people and a “transgender sanctuary” law that protects transgender people and their families from legal consequences if they travel to Minnesota for health care.
He also signed a bill banning conversion therapy for children and adults.
“In Minnesota, you are seen, you are heard, you are loved, you are respected and you are safe,” he said of LGBTQ rights.
Book Bans, School Shootings
Walz has sharply criticized Republicans who have led a wave of bans on books by LGBTQ authors and has advocated for laws that would ban transgender students from playing sports and limit transgender people’s access to health care.
He noted that Minnesota had passed a law against banning books.
“That’s what these people focus on all their time. Reading about two male penguins who love each other could turn your kids gay. And that’s what you should be worried about,” he said.
Walz’s speech was in stark contrast to the Republican Party’s presidential campaign speech and former President Donald Trump’s false claims about transgender people.
In Trump’s first term, the administration rolled back Obama-era regulation to mandate health care as a civil right for transgender patients under the Affordable Care Act. Trump also enacted a ban on transgender people serving in the U.S. military, a policy that the Biden administration has reversed.
Walz called it “stupid, bigoted policy.”
“If you want to serve this nation, you should be allowed to do so, and we should honor that service,” Walz said. “They should not be subjected to gunfire from their commander in chief, attacking their basic dignity, humanity and patriotism.”
When Trump announced Vance as his vice presidential running mate, the Human Rights Campaign and GLAAD, a national LGBTQ advocacy organization, expressed concerns about Vance’s past comments about LQBTQ people.
“I’ll stop calling people ‘groomers’ when they stop freaking out about bills that prevent the sexualization of my children,” Vance said wrote on X, formerly Twitter, in 2022
During a Saturday afternoon campaign rally in Mosinee, Wisconsin, Trump accused Walz of signing a bill requiring menstrual products like tampons to be available in men’s restrooms, which is not legal under the 2023 law.
The law requires district or charter schools are required to provide free menstrual products to students in fourth grade through the end of high school. It does not specify which bathrooms must provide access to the products.
“He’s a lunatic,” Trump said of Walz.
Trump continued to spread false right-wing claims that children in schools were getting plastic surgery and gender changes.
“Keep critical race theory and transgender madness out of our schools,” Trump said.
Cheney’s endorsement
In other campaign developments, former Republican Vice President Dick Cheney on Friday supported Harris for president. His daughter, former Republican U.S. congresswoman Liz Cheney, also endorsed Harris.
Harris, who is currently in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, preparing for a debate with Trump, said Saturday that both Republicans put country above party.
“People are exhausted by the divisions and the attempts to divide the American people, and I think it’s brave of them to come out with this public statement,” Harris said, according to reports from the White House.
