GLAAD RESPONDS TO KAMALA HARRIS’ CHOICE OF MINNESOTA GOVERNOR TIM WALZ FOR VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES; RELEASES LGBTQ RECORD OF THE HARRIS-WALZ TICKET

GLAAD: “Vice President Harris’ selection of Minnesota Governor Tim Walz underscores a longstanding commitment to the equality, prosperity, and safety of all Americans, including and especially for LGBTQ people. Gov. Walz has a proven record of including and protecting LGBTQ people and the fundamental freedoms all Americans treasure. In this consequential election, we need all voices to speak up for the rights of LGBTQ people to be welcome as we are, live free from discrimination and harm, and pursue our own success and happiness. Voters can review the records of the Harris-Walz ticket to inform their own choices this fall, to reflect the country they want to live in, and to envision a future where all of us are more safe and free.”

(August 6, 2024) – GLAAD, the world’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) media advocacy organization, is responding to Kamala Harris’ announcement that she has selected Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her vice presidential running mate in the 2024 presidential election, and releasing the LGBTQ records of the Harris-Walz ticket.

GLAAD’s President and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis (she/her) responded to the news below:
“Vice President Harris’ choice of Minnesota Governor Tim Walz underscores a longstanding commitment to the equality, prosperity, and safety of all Americans, including and especially for LGBTQ people. Gov. Walz has a proven record of including and protecting LGBTQ people and the fundamental freedoms all Americans treasure. In this consequential election, we need all voices to speak up for the rights of LGBTQ people to be welcome as we are, live free from discrimination and harm, and pursue our own success and happiness. Voters can review the records of the Harris-Walz ticket to inform their own choices this fall, to reflect the country they want to live in, and to envision a future where all of us are more safe and free.”

Governor Tim Walz’s record on LGBTQ issues includes the following:

• Signed an executive order in 2023 which protects access to health care for transgender people in Minnesota. This order directs state agencies to take actions safeguarding the rights of LGBTQ people to seek and receive gender-affirming care, including those from other states.
• Signed a statewide ban on so-called “conversion therapy” for LGBTQ children and vulnerable adults into law. This legislation prohibits the widely debunked and harmful practice of attempting to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity.
• Signed a “trans refuge” bill into law, which protects transgender people and their families from legal repercussions for traveling to Minnesota to receive transgender health care. This law prohibits the enforcement of out-of-state subpoenas, arrest warrants, and extradition requests related to such care.
• Vocal advocate for LGBTQ rights, speaking out against discriminatory legislation in other states and emphasizing Minnesota’s commitment to being a welcoming and supportive state for LGBTQ people.
• Signed the PRO Act, which codified a fundamental right to abortion in Minnesota law. This act also indirectly supports LGBTQ people who may need abortion services.

Vice President Kamala Harris’ LGBTQ record is documented here and includes:

• Taking at least 66 positive moves for LGBTQ equality as Vice President and before, as documented in the Harris Accountability Tracker.
• Consistent support for the Equality Act, which aims to provide comprehensive protections against discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
• Longtime support for same-sex couples’ freedom to marry, including during her time as California attorney general when she issued marriage licenses to same-sex couples and refused to defend Proposition 8, which sought to ban marriage equality in the state.
• Opposition to so-called conversion therapy, calling it “a horrifying and abusive practice” and supporting legislation to ban the practice nationwide.
• Support for inclusion of transgender people in the U.S. military.

Donald Trump’s anti-LGBTQ history is documented on GLAAD’s Trump Accountability Tracker, detailing more than 218 attacks in policy and rhetoric against LGBTQ Americans. Trump’s record against LGBTQ people on the top issues important to LGBTQ Americans includes:

• Abortion: bragging about nominating Supreme Court justices to overturn 50 years of safe and legal abortions; refusing to say whether he’d enforce the Comstock Act, which criminalizes mailing of abortion and birth control medication.
• Climate Change: promising top oil executives to immediately reverse historic efforts to mitigate climate change, which disproportionately affects LGBTQ people, families and other marginalized communities, if big oil would contribute $1 billion to his re-election bid.
• The Economy and Housing Crisis: Trump oversaw a Justice Department that fought at the U.S. Supreme Court for the right to discriminate against LGBTQ workers, customers, and families seeking to adopt.
• Education: advocating to defund schools that support LGBTQ students.
• Health Care: vowing to “totally kill” the Affordable Care Act, eliminating coverage millions of Americans depend on, including LGBTQ Americans who are significantly more likely to live in poverty and less likely to have insurance than the general population. Trump’s promises to unveil a replacement for the ACA were never delivered.
• Public Safety and Rising Extremism includes documentation of Trump’s support of violent white supremacists and conspiracy theorists.

Trump’s choice for Vice President, U.S. Senator JD Vance of Ohio, has prioritized attacking LGBTQ people in his less than 18 months in the Senate, including:

• Holding up nominations of dozens of diplomats for more than a year with a questionnaire targeting LGBTQ people and potential actions to support them including transgender health care and Pride flags and celebrations. Vance was not on a committee with oversight of diplomatic nominations.
• Attempted to erase the counting of LGBTQ people in the U.S. Census, objecting to questions about gender identity, and falsely claiming gender identity as a “harmful ideology,” language used by extremists to discredit and exclude gender diverse people.
• Introduced the so-called Passport Sanity Act, a bill to ban “X” gender markers on U.S. passports, an option that the State Department rolled out in April 2022. The bill was never taken up in committee. Vance has changed his own name multiple times, changing his middle name from Donald to David, changed his last name to take on his stepfather’s last name, then legally changing his last name again in honor of his maternal grandparents when he married his wife in 2014.
• Mocked International Pronoun Day, which encourages respect for people and the pronouns they go by, writing, “I’ll just speak like a normal person instead.”

Additional research:

• GLAAD’s Guide to the 2024 Elections includes the top issues of the LGBTQ community and best practices for reporters to include and cover LGBTQ people in political conversations.
• Donald Trump and JD Vance have strong connections to Project 2025, a dangerous roadmap for authoritarian takeover of the federal government, criminalization and elimination of abortion and birth control, and elimination of LGBTQ protections and recognitions, as documented here.