Tuesday morning’s announcement that Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz would be Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate in the 2024 election electrified Democrats and their allies across the country.
Everyone from progressive Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York to notorious centrist Democratic-turned-independent Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia praised the pick, bringing long elusive unity to the top of the Democratic presidential ticket for the first time in several election cycles. One small but beleaguered voting constituency in particular breathed a sigh of relief at the choice: trans people.
Trans issues have emerged as one of the primary political targets of the Republican Party, and many of the party’s legislative accomplishments over the last few years involve the systematic persecution of trans people’s rights in red-state legislatures. Because of that, Harris needed to choose someone with a track record of handling the inevitable gender identity attacks. Enter Walz.
Harris needed to choose someone with a track record of handling the inevitable gender identity attacks. Enter Walz.
First and foremost, Walz was the creator of the “weird” attack line that has knocked Republicans on their heels over the last month of the campaign. Branding Republicans and their gender-based obsessions with pregnancy and trans people as creepy and “weird” brilliantly defuses the emotional manipulation conservatives are trying to achieve. It is, indeed, weird to be worried about children’s genitals, it is weird to obsess over Olympic athlete’s chromosomes, it is weird to criticize women for being childless (but never childless men).
But beyond being the creator of the most incisive Democratic attack line of the cycle, Walz has a deep track record of supporting LGBTQ people and pro-equality policies. As governor, he signed an executive order last year protecting trans people’s rights to access gender-affirming care in Minnesota, he signed a statewide ban on LGBTQ “conversion therapy,” and he signed a bill making his state a trans refuge state, which protects trans people and their parents from actions taken by out-of-state governments to prosecute them for accessing gender-affirming care.
As a member of Congress, prior to becoming governor, Walz co-sponsored a bill to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act, along with a bill to repeal the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy — which had prohibited openly gay people from serving in the armed forces.
Outside of his official record on queer and trans issues, I’m struck by how he talks about the trans people in his state. In a time when a lot of national level Democrats are afraid to even say the word “trans” or who speak in euphemisms with vague references to allowing people “to be who they are,” Walz positions his support for trans issues as a matter of being neighborly.
“We are saying to our trans loved ones, friends, neighbors, and fellow Minnesotans: you belong here,” he said in a statement after signing the aforementioned executive order. “You are safe here, and we want you in our community as your authentic selves.”
It’s clear that he treats LGBTQ people with respect and dignity, worrying more about their well-being than political optics. His support for queer people even predates his time in politics. In 1999, when he was a teacher and a high school football coach, a gay student came out to him and said they wanted to start a Gay Straight Alliance at the school. Walz became the founding faculty adviser for the club.
It’s clear that he treats LGBTQ people with respect and dignity, worrying more about their well-being than political optics.
This anecdote struck me, as I was a closeted high school student myself in 1999, though I lived in liberal Massachusetts instead of Minnesota. Despite being in a very deep-blue town, we didn’t have a GSA, and “gay” was used as a synonym for “bad” back then. I vividly remember a goth boy in my school who frequently wore dresses to school and would occasionally get beaten up by football players.
The idea of coming out back then was too terrifying to attempt, much less deciding to come out to the football coach. The fact that the student trusted Walz enough to do that tells me a lot about the candidate’s character and demeanor. The fact that Walz then decided to jump in and help found the school’s GSA is simply astounding to me.
LGBTQ voters who care about equality across the community should be breathing a little easier at the prospect of Walz’s having a voice and a hand in the everyday operations of the White House should the ticket win this fall. As a trans person whose job it is to write about politics, I couldn’t be happier with Harris’ choice for running mate.