Walz talked about Harris achievements on LGBTQ+ issues, dating back to her time as Attorney General of California. (screen capture)
At the national dinner for the Human Rights Campaign held Saturday, September 7, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz put up for exhibit Vice President Kamala Harris’ record on defending LGBTQ+ rights and pledged to the attendees that if elected the two would work to advance the HRC’s causes.
Walking in to greet the enthusiastic 3,500 strong crowd to the tune of John Mellencamp’s “Small Town,” Walz, Harris’ running partner for the Democratic Vice President role, didn’t take long to speak his thoughts and the party’s support for the community as the applause and standing ovation settled down.
Urging the crowd to support his running partner, Walz started off by speaking first on Harris’ work with President Joe Biden to set in place executive orders, giving protections to the rights LGBTQ+ people hold when it comes to education, health care and the military at large.
He also took a page out of Harris’ past achievements on LGBTQ+ issues before her time in the White House, invoking a situation where, as attorney general, she made the time to personally call a clerk withholding marriage licenses from same-sex couples out in Los Angeles.
“’You must start the marriages immediately,’” Harris had said, according to Walz. “She had the best line then. She told the clerk, ‘Have a good day. It’s going to be a fun one.’”
“And the reason she did it was pretty simple. Kamala Harris believes in equal justice under law, and that means proper, complicated, equal justice under law. It is not to be debated, It’s not that difficult.”
Painting a picture of the grim future that could be if Trump were to take back the White House, Walz urged the crowd to help elect Harris, pointing out that Trump’s proposed policies would “restrict freedom, bully this community, [and] demonize vulnerable children.”
The Human Rights Campaign is also cautious of what Trump may do if reelected. In 2023, HRC sounded the alarm for LGBTQ+ people over the greater extend of state laws being proposed that restrict rights for both transgender youth and adults, following Trump stating he would replicate a collection of those restrictions if he wins in November.
After Biden dropped out of the running for the Democratic Nominee and endorsed Harris, HRC was quick to throw its support behind her, and later Walz, who has his own record of backing same-sex marriage and protecting LGBTQ+ youth, whether in the governor’s office or in his high school teaching days in the 1990s.