Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz says Democrats should not abandon defending the rights of transgender people as they figure out how to win again.
The former Democratic nominee for vice president spoke to The Independent about the issue, which became a major weapon in Donald Trump’s campaign ads against former Vice President Kamala Harris.
“It's a mistake,” he insisted. “And here's the thing: we need to tell people your cost of eggs, your health care being denied, your homeowner’s insurance, your lack of getting warning on tornadoes coming has nothing to do with someone's gender.”
In recent months, some Democrats have hinted that Democrats should avoid talking about transgender athletes from participating in women’s sports. Gov. Gavin Newsom of California told Turning Point USA head Charlie Kirk on his podcast that trans participation in women’s sports was “unfair.”
“I think we have to figure out how to not get sucked in and allow that to be the focal point only, and that we can multitask, and we can hold several things simultaneously,” he said.
“We can protect LGBTQ rights and basic human rights at the same time, we can make sure that we hold drug companies accountable for high prices.”
Republicans have hammered Democrats on transgender issues in recent years. During the 2024 presidential election, Trump attacked Harris for providing gender-affirming care for prison inmates and for allowing trans athletes to participate in women’s sports, saying, “Kamala is for They/Them.”
Since taking office, Trump has signed numerous anti-transgender executive orders, such as saying the federal government will only recognize a person’s gender as defined at birth.
Earlier this month, the US Supreme Court ruled that the Trump administration can continue to ban transgender service members from the US military as legal challenges move through courts.
In February, Trump also signed an executive order banning transgender athletes from playing in women’s sports. Maine Gov. Janet Mills, a Democrat, challenged the Trump administration on the ban, which led to the administration freezing money to the state. The White House later unfroze the money for Maine’s child nutrition program after a court challenge.
As governor, Walz signed legislation making Minnesota a “trans refuge state” in 2023. The legislation prohibits the state from recognizing criminal or civil subpoenas for people’s health care records to prosecute clinicians for providing gender-affirming care to trans youth.
It also provides temporary jurisdiction for Minnesota courts if there is a custody dispute for a transgender person younger than 18 and is in the state until it is decided where the custody case should go.
Leigh Finke, the state’s first openly transgender state representative, and state Sen. Erin Maye Quade, who is a lesbian, sponsored the law in the legislature.
During the 2024 campaign, Walz’s opponent for the vice presidency, then-Sen. J.D. Vance, said that the law would “take children away from their parents if the parents don't want to consent to sex change.”
But Walz has also faced criticism from some progressives for a budget proposal brokered with Republicans in the legislature that removed undocumented immigrants from MinnesotaCare, the state’s low-income health care program for people who do not qualify for Medical Assistance, the state’s equivalent of Medicaid.
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