LGBTQ rights groups celebrate Walz as Harris’ VP pick

LGBTQ rights groups on Tuesday celebrated Vice President Harris’ selection of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as his running mate, highlighting his longtime support for LGBTQ equality.

Walz, who has served as governor of Minnesota since 2019, has helped make Minnesota a haven for LGBTQ Americans, and transgender Americans in particular. In 2023, an executive order signed by Walz made Minnesota one of the first states to safeguard access to gender-affirming health care, and laws signed by the governor since then have banned conversion therapy and the use of “panic” defenses. ” of gay and trans people.

Walz’s support for LGBTQ rights predates his political career. As a young teacher at Mankato West High School, Walz advised the school’s first gay-straight alliance, a student-led club that supports LGBTQ students and families.

Representatives Mark Takano (D-Calif.) and Ritchie Torres (DN.Y.), co-chairs of Equality PAC, the campaign arm of the Congressional Equality Caucus, reflected on this rumor on Tuesday in a joint statement.

“This story encompasses the kind of ally Tim Walz is and will be as Vice President of the United States. In Congress and as governor, Tim always stood up for what is right, even if it didn’t make him the most popular person in the room,” they said. “Your support for the LGBTQ community has been constant. And at a time when LGBTQ Americans are under attack from MAGA extremists, we need strong allies now more than ever.”

This year was another record year for anti-LGBTQ legislation, with more than 500 bills introduced in state legislatures across the country,according to a count of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). Forty-four bills were signed into law, all of them in Republican-led states.

In Congress, GOP lawmakers this session have advanced three separate proposals to ban transgender women and girls from women’s sports teams and at least two stand-alone bills to ban gender-affirming health care for minors, one of which would make providing treating trans youth is a difficult task. crime, punishable by more than a decade in prison.

Senator JD Vance (R-Ohio), the Republican nominee for vice president, introduced the latest measure. Vance is also the lead sponsor of a bill to ban “X” gender markers on U.S. passports and has repeated the false and inflammatory claim that LGBTQ people are “grooming” children to abuse them. Former President Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, similarly supported policies targeting transgender rights, including a federal law that recognizes only two genders.

“This is the choice we face in America. A Trump-Vance administration that would demonize LGBTQ+ people, terrorize our families, send our rights and freedoms back to the Land Before Time and install Project 2025. Or a Harris-Walz administration that would fight for our freedoms, defend our families and would America is a place where people not only survive, but can thrive,” said Kelley Robinson, president of the Human Rights Campaign, a national LGBTQ advocacy group that supports Harris.

Harris, also a longtime advocate for LGBTQ rights, has faced some criticism for her record on transgender rights, including her 2015 defense of a California Department of Corrections policy that prevented a transgender woman from receiving affirming surgery. gender while in prison. Harris has since apologized for defending the policy.

Sarah Kate Ellis, president and CEO of the LGBTQ media advocacy organization GLAAD, said Harris’ selection of Walz “underscores a long-standing commitment to the equality, prosperity and safety of all Americans, including and especially for LGBTQ people.” ”.

“In this important election, we need every voice to speak up for the rights of LGBTQ people to be welcome as we are, to live free from discrimination and harm, and to pursue our own success and happiness,” Ellis said.

Annise Parker, president and CEO of the LGBTQ+ Victory Fund, an organization dedicated to electing more LGBTQ people to public office, argued that Harris’ selection of Walz as her running mate will only help advance LGBTQ rights.

“A Harris-Walz ticket will certainly boost the equality movement,” she said Tuesday in a statement.

However, some LGBTQ Republicans disagreed that Walz and Harris are the right people to deliver that message. Charles Moran, president of the Log Cabin Republicans, a conservative LGBTQ rights group, said a Harris-Walz administration “would be an absolute disaster,” citing Walz’s history of embracing progressive causes, including support for gender-affirming care.

“Make no mistake, despite what the media will tell you, there is nothing pro-LGBT or pro-family about this,” Moran said Tuesday. in a statement on the social platform parental consent.

Richard Grenell, acting director of national intelligence during the Trump administration, described Walz as a left-wing radical who would isolate moderate voters. “Truly the best choice for Republicans,” he wrote Tuesday on X.

This story originally appeared on thehill.com read the full story