Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz speaks during a campaign rally with Vice President Kamala Harris at the Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale on Aug. 9, 2024. Photo: Joe Rondone/The Republic / USA TODAY NETWORK
On August 6, 2024, the MAGA Inc Super PAC, which is supporting Donald Trump in this election, released a campaign ad that targets the Harris campaign’s vice presidential pick, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.
The core of this ad makes three claims about Walz’s legislative history around gender-affirming care.
- Walz backed legislation requiring tampons to be given out in boys’ school bathrooms;
- He backed legislation allowing gender-affirming surgery for trans minor;
- Kamala Harris wants Walz to enforce these laws “on a national scale.”
Here is how LGBTQ Nation evaluated each of these claims for truthfulness. LGBTQ Nation emailed MAGA, Inc. for comment on each of these claims; however, they did not receive a response before publication.
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Tampons in Boys’ Bathrooms
The ad states that Walz signed a law mandating that tampons be stocked in boys’ bathrooms across the state. In support of this, the ad cites an Alpha News article from 2023. This claim is partly true – Walz did indeed sign into law a bill that requires menstrual products – although nothing limits it to just tampons; pads could be offered to meet the requirements in the law – to be supplied in school bathrooms in the state, which includes many boys’ restrooms.
However, this isn’t the full story. The law, Minnesota Statute 121A.212, went into effect on January 1 of this year after a 35-32 vote in the state Senate before it went to Walz’s desk, where he signed it into law.
It states, “A school district or charter school must provide students with access to menstrual products at no charge,” and that those products be available to “all menstruating students in restrooms regularly used by students in grades 4 to 12, according to a plan developed by the school district.” This extends to all bathrooms within public schools for the given grades, including gender-neutral bathrooms and boys’ bathrooms.
Republicans had tried to introduce an amendment to make this law only apply to girls’ bathrooms, however the amendment was shot down by legislators.
Minnesota state Rep. Sandra Feist (DFL), who introduced the bill, spoke to WCNC and said of the bill, “While the vast majority of the period products will be used in the girls’ bathrooms, the decision was made to structure the bill as gender-inclusive in order to ensure that trans and nonbinary students who menstruate would have equal access to the products they need.”
“We know that these students face even greater barriers and stigma around menstruation and wanted them to be able to privately access these products.”
LGBTQ Nation rates this claim partly true.
Sex Reassignment Surgeries for Minors
The ad argues that Walz signed “legislation allowing minors to receive sex change operations.” In support of this, the ad cites an Associated Press article from 2023. While this article does discuss Walz’s positive record on gender-affirming care, nowhere in the article does it discuss surgery or even gender-affirming care for minors.
Instead, this article discusses the “trans refuge state” executive order – not legislation – from 2023, which makes Minnesota a safe state for gender-affirming care, protecting families and care providers from prosecution from other states. It also discusses a bill that aimed to ban conversion therapy in the state.
Minnesota state Rep. Leigh Finke, the legislator who sponsored this bill, told LGBTQ Nation about the types of gender-affirming care that are protected, “I sponsored legislation protecting access to gender-affirming care and requiring certain health insurance plans to cover gender-affirming care.”
“All gender-affirming care in the state of Minnesota is done following national and international standards of care. Those standards of care have not been changed by Governor Walz or any legislation introduced under his governorship.”
According to the World Professional Association for Transgender Health’s Standards of Care 8, “Genital surgery should not be carried out until (i) patients reach the legal age of majority in a given country, and (ii) patients have lived continuously for at least 12 months in the gender role that is congruent with their gender identity. The age threshold should be seen as a minimum criterion and not an indication in and of itself for active intervention.”
There is an allowance for top surgeries in transmasculine youth in rare cases, however research suggests that cisgender boys are more likely to get top surgery in cases of gynecomastia than transmasculine youth are to get it at all. Only 85 trans youth across the United States received any kind of gender-affirming surgery in 2019, and the vast majority of these young people got top surgery.
Additionally, nowhere in the trans refuge bill nor the conversion therapy bill is there any discussion of gender-affirming surgery for minors.
LGBTQ Nation rates this claim false.
Harris Wants Walz to Implement These Policies Into National Law
The ad claims that Harris is pushing for Walz to “enforce these laws on a national scale.” In support of this, they cite a Washington Examiner article from earlier this year. However, this article was published before Walz was announced as Harris’ running mate and makes no mention of the Minnesota Governor.
According to Finke, “Vice presidents don’t get to enforce state laws on the national scale. That is not how laws work.”
The Harris campaign was reached out to for comment, however they did not respond before the publication of this article.
While it is true that the Harris campaign, and by extension Walz, want to protect gender-affirming care if elected to office, there is no evidence that Harris specifically selected Walz to “enforce” Minnesota laws nationally. And even if Congress passed the same bill at the federal level, it would be up to the president – and their administration – to enforce it, not the vice president.
So while Walz will likely support trans-inclusive policies nationally, there is no evidence that Harris is selecting him to enforce these Minnesota laws nationally.
LGBTQ Nation rates this claim false.
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