Walz praises Democratic record of defending LGBTQ+ rights

WASHINGTON — Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz praised Vice President Kamala Harris’ record of defending LGBTQ+ rights on Saturday night, promising a supportive crowd that she would advance their cause if elected president.

Walz, the Democratic vice presidential nominee, headlined the national dinner for the Human Rights Campaign, which he hailed as “the best party in the country.” He entered the sprawling ballroom of 3,500 to John Mellencamp’s “Small Town” and received a boisterous standing ovation from members of the nation’s largest LGBTQ+ organization.

He noted how Harris worked with President Joe Biden to issue executive orders protecting the rights of LGBTQ+ people in health care, the military and education.

“And the reason she did it was pretty simple. Kamala Harris believes in equal justice under the law, and that means pretty complicated equal justice under the law. That’s not up for debate,” Walz said. “It’s not that complicated.”

Transgender youth and adults face increasing restrictions in red states. Last year, HRC declared a national emergency for LGBTQ+ people in the United States due to the proliferation of state laws restricting their rights. If elected, Republican Donald Trump has said he would replicate some of those restrictions at the federal level.

Not long after Biden dropped out of the 2024 race and endorsed Harris for president, HRC announced it would back her. The organization also applauded her choice of Walz as her running mate, citing his own long record of supporting LGBTQ+ youth and backing same-sex marriage.

On Saturday night, Walz recounted how he was teaching social studies and coaching football at a Minnesota high school in the 1990s when he was unexpectedly approached by a student who asked him to serve as a faculty advisor to the Gay-Straight Alliance.

He also outlined Harris’s record on LGBTQ+ issues, citing an instance in which, as California’s attorney general, she had to personally call a Los Angeles clerk who refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

“‘You need to start the weddings right away,'” Harris told the valet, according to Walz. “She was in the best mood at that point. She said to the valet, ‘Have a nice day. It’s going to be a fun day.'”

He urged the crowd to help elect Harris, and outlined what could happen if Trump were to win a second term in the White House. Trump’s policies would “restrict freedom, bully this community, demonize vulnerable children,” Walz said.

Trump has made attacks on transgender people a staple of his campaign rhetoric as he seeks a second term. It’s a turnaround for Trump, who called for the party to protect LGBTQ+ people in his 2016 Republican National Convention speech.

If re-elected, Trump has pledged in his policy platform to stop public schools from “promoting gender transition” and to cut federal funding to any school that teaches what he calls “radical gender ideology.” In a video posted online last year, Trump also said he would punish doctors who provide gender-affirming care to transgender youth by cutting them off from Medicare and Medicaid and teachers who “suggest to a child that they may be trapped in the wrong body.”

At an event last week for Moms for Liberty, Trump went after Algerian boxer Imane Khelif, continuing to spread misinformation about the Olympic gold medalist being transgender and having an unfair advantage over her competitors. He then went on to make the bizarre claim that public schools perform gender-affirming surgeries.

“Your child goes to school. And a few days later comes home with surgery,” Trump said at the group’s national summit. He repeated the claim at a rally Saturday. Transgender youth rarely undergo gender-affirming surgery anywhere.

Asked about the comments, campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt couldn’t provide examples to back up his claim. But she pointed to reports that thousands of K-12 schools have policies that prohibit teachers from telling parents if their child asks to use pronouns different from those on their birth certificate.

“President Trump will ensure that all Americans are treated equally under the law, regardless of race, gender or sexual orientation,” Leavitt said, adding that the former president does not believe children should be allowed to undergo what she called “permanent genital mutilation” surgeries.