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You are here: Home / Open Threads / Appreciating the Walz’ Courage

Appreciating the Walz’ Courage

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Anything But Death
A young woman’s tattoo at this year’s Denver Pride.

We all know the basics of the story of Gwen and Tim Walz and the Gay/Straight student alliance at Mankato West High School, but this piece by Lisa Needham at Public Notice is a great reminder of just how terrible things were for gay kids in 1999.

It’s impossible to overstate how far out ahead of his Minnesota Democratic peers Walz was at this time. It was only three years since the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) sailed through Congress with overwhelming bipartisan support. It arose when Hawaii was considering legalizing same-sex marriage and would have been the first state to do so. Congress sprung into action and passed DOMA, a short-lived but brutal law.

First, DOMA said that no state was required to recognize a same-sex marriage from any other state. The Full Faith and Credit Clause of the United States Constitution requires states to recognize marriages from other states, so DOMA had the effect of upending that constitutional protection for same-sex couples. Next, DOMA defined “marriage” as “only a legal union between one man and one woman as husband and wife” and “spouse” as only “a person of the opposite sex who is a husband or a wife.” That definition was designed to ensure that no one in a same-sex marriage, even if it was legal in their state, could access federal benefits, such as Social Security survivorship payments after their spouse died.

Only one member of Minnesota’s congressional delegation, Martin Sabo, who represented Minnesota’s Fifth Congressional District, which includes Minneapolis, voted against DOMA. At the time of the DOMA vote, Minnesota’s Democrats held six of the state’s eight House seats. In the Senate, progressive icon and rural hero Paul Wellstone voted yes on DOMA, a stance that profoundly disappointed LGBTQ Minnesotans. It wouldn’t be until 2001, some two years after Tim Walz started working to smooth the path for LGBTQ kids in Mankato, that Wellstone expressed misgivings about his vote, but even then he didn’t fully endorse same-sex marriage, instead musing that he “still wonder[ed] if I did the right thing.”

In 1997, Minnesota passed its own version of the Defense of Marriage Act, banning same-sex marriage and stating any same-sex marriages from other states would not be legal or recognized.

So this was the landscape in 1999 when Tim Walz told [gay student Jacob] Reitan he would be the faculty adviser for the GSA. It’s a testament to the strength of Walz’s character that this was so important to him that he was willing to take a public role when that was not looked on fondly.

The whole thing is worth a read, but as an elected official, Tim Walz’ support of the LGBTQ community has been long and steadfast.  He was instrumental in the overturn of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell as a Representative, and as Governor, he signed bills outlawing conversion therapy and making Minnesota a trans refuge state.

There’s no doubt that the actions of Tim and Gwen saved lives in Mankato and across Minnesota.  It is life and death out there for LGBTQ kids.

Reader Interactions

78Comments

  2. 2.

    $8 blue check mistermix

    Sorry I held this post back since WG posted something at 1 PM and I set it to post at 1:30 AM duh…anyway, here it is.

  3. 3.

    Chacal Charles Calthrop

    Thanks for highlighting this.  In 1999 medications that would actually work on AIDS were still new and therefore AIDS was still considered a death sentence, which should highlight how courageous Walz was at the time.   Now not only do we have anti-virals keeping people alive with AIDS, we even seem to be on the cusp of a vaccine.  This would have been a fantasy in 1999

    I’m hoping that the Covid pandemic may also help to flip the script that elected Trump:  now more people should associate government aid with emergency aid, and not with “the welfare state.”

  4. 4.

    Kay

    Even Democratic candidates in the toughest battleground turf are begging the Harris-Walz campaign to get them on the trail. Walz is already in discussions with multiple down-ballot candidates about setting up joint political events. One idea from the Minnesota governor and former football coach: attending a series of Friday night high school football games in key districts, according to two people familiar with the discussions.

    Clearly reading BJ. I think some people here suggested this :)

  6. 6.

    Kay

    Maybe Vance can go to a hs football game too. To observe some females for future discussions with far Right grifter podcast hosts.

  9. 9.

    japa21

    @Kay: Ahem… The day Walz was announced, I suggested a series of Friday Night Lights event for Walz, including in TX.  Not so much for Allred, since he apparently has already decided he’s losing, but other down ballot races.

    ETA:  Yes, I am extremely humble and modest.  To me, it’s a no-brainer.  Limited expense-high potential return.

  10. 10.

    Kay

    I don’t even have a dog and it seemed clear to me looking at photos of JD Vance’s attempt to seem normal by bringing that poor dog to his events that Vance has never in his life walked a dog before. I have never seen anyone hold a leash like that. Why are these people such freaks?

  12. 12.

    Steve LaBonne

    We have neighbors who help their neighbors. They have weirdos who hate everybody. Choose wisely, America.

  14. 14.

    O. Felix Culpa

    For a little more historical context, on August 13, 1998, the Bay Area Reporter ran an edition with no AIDS-related obituaries–for the first time in almost fifteen years.

    Headline was: No obits

    Bluesky link

  15. 15.

    cmorenc

    NOBODY is at-risk of becoming trans, except for the very tiny % who are born with their brains cross-wired opposite to their physical gender.  I am sitting on a popular 3-mile-long barrier-island beach in NC, momentarily with at least 1500 total people out on the beach strand, and maybe 2500 total on the island – and I would bet there are no more than a single-hand finger-count of trans people among the.  And not one of the other 99+% nor their kids are at zero risk of catching trans-wannabe disease.  How many of you could be talked into going trans, if you are not already among the very small % who are born cross-wired for physical gender?  Didn’t think so.

  16. 16.

    rebelsdad (aka texasboyshaun)

    Thank you, Governor Walz, for fighting for people like me. I will never forget it.

    I’m moving from Jersey to Florida tomorrow, near Tampa. Hopefully this will improve my mental health. My dad is down there now. He’s 74 with dementia, COPD, and congestive heart failure. I’ll be glad to be with him at this stage of his life. But I do worry about being around all my MAGA cousins.

  17. 17.

    japa21

    @rebelsdad (aka texasboyshaun):  Can’t argue that.  Allred has a big war chest and he’s not doing anything.  Cruz is vulnerable and Allred will blow it. Other than Beto, the party may even be worse that FL’s, which is displaying some sign of coming out of its slumber.

  18. 18.

    Steve LaBonne

    @rebelsdad (aka texasboyshaun): Just like my state, Ohio. Tim Ryan should have been able to beat Vance. Where was the oppo research that should have found the stuff Vance is getting clobbered with now? Ryan was too busy running as a Republican-lite.

  21. 21.

    Steve LaBonne

    @japa21: I would like to see President Harris give Vice President Walz the job of overseeing the rebuilding of state Democratic Party organizations that have fallen into disrepair.

  28. 28.

    KatKapCC

    @cmorenc: Yeah. Being around trans people won’t make you trans, but it might help you realize you are. But the right is allergic to nuance, so they’ll never grasp that concept

    (Just to note, though, probably a better way to word it than “at risk of becoming trans”, because that makes being trans sound like a bad thing.)

  31. 31.

    Josie

    @rebelsdad (aka texasboyshaun): ​
     It just occurred to me that we should put Beto in charge of the Democratic party here in Texas. He is at least willing to get out and meet people and do stuff. I never get outreach from the people in charge here.

  33. 33.

    BR

    @Kay: ​

    And Vance and Project 2025 want to get rid of dog parks. Perfect opportunity to talk about it. I mean…why? Next they’re going to be talking about banning apple pie.

  37. 37.

    Kay

    Amid threats of certification battles and mass voter challenges, Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign has assembled an expansive senior legal team that will oversee hundreds of lawyers and thousands of volunteers in a sprawling operation designed to be a bulwark against what Democrats expect to be an aggressive Republican effort to challenge voters, rules and, possibly, the results of the 2024 election.
    The legal apparatus within the Harris campaign will oversee multiple aspects of the election program, including voter protection, recounts and general election litigation, and it is adding Marc Elias, one of the party’s top election lawyers, to focus on potential recounts.

    Sorry- NYTimes so I can’t link but I know lots and lots of Democrats are (rightfully) worried about this. Sounds like she’s got it handled. Her legal team is 10X bigger than Biden’s team was. I’ll volunteer in my county on election day but I get so argumentative with Republicans who don’t understand voter ID rules I may get arrested. They think if the statute says “OR” that means “AND”, so they make people jump thru hoops they don’t need to. “It’s belt and suspenders for fraud!” No. Not how laws work. Just follow the rules exactly. That’s all I ask.

  41. 41.

    Betty Cracker

    @Geminid: Oooo, Creep State! I love it!

    @$8 blue check mistermix: I accidentally big-footed this post (wasn’t visible in the mobile app dashboard last time I looked) and then edited mine to publish a bit later. It’s hard to get a word in edgewise here sometimes, but that’s a good thing? ;-)

    Anyhoo, I agree about Gwen and Tim Walz. They were courageous and ahead of their time. Dog bless them for being a lifeline to so many young people.

    @Kay: We should collect a bail fund for you here just in case!

  43. 43.

    Steve LaBonne

    @BR: The “why” is that the wimmins should be too busy popping out babies to have time for walking a dog. No matter how fucked up you think these fascist weirdos are, they’re even more fucked up than that.

  47. 47.

    Ohio Mom

    @rebelsdad (aka texasboyshaun): You have good timing, you will be in sunny Florida while New Jersey is cold and dark.

    It’s going to be a workout though, taking care of your dad. Any one of those conditions by itself is tough going. Please make sure you create a support system for yourself, even if it is only something like an online dementia-carers support group.

  48. 48.

    Suzanne

    I graduated from high school in 1998, and I remember how  terrible it was for my LGBT friends. This was in Mesa, AZ. My friends and I asked our newspaper advisor, who is lesbian, to sponsor a GSA. She wasn’t willing at the time. So my newspaper friends and I did a special edition of the paper about LGBT srudents and campus life at the time. Apparently it got much better…. openly LGBT students at prom, less violence, more openness and less religious bullshit.

    Good for Tim Walz and the adults in students’ lives who demonstrate that openness and acceptance are social virtues.

    And I will also note that I was thrilled beyond belief to see the current mayor of Mesa, Republican John Giles, appear at a Harris/Walz rally and encouraging people to vote for her.

  50. 50.

    Sister Golden Bear

    @Chacal Charles Calthrop: Worth noting this past week was the 26th anniversary (1998) of the famous “No obits” headline by a SF gay newspaperthe famous “No obits” headline by a SF gay newspaper, marking the first time in 15 years there were no AIDS-related obituaries.

    It was stunning news at the time—for many gay men I knew, and to was the first time they had hope they’d outlive the epidemic.

    ETA: I seen @O. Felix Culpa: got there first.

  52. 52.

    Barbara

    @BR: I am not the biggest fan of dog parks but it wouldn’t  occur to me — like not ever — that we need a national policy on dog parks.  Who are these people?  Did they have a dog that got mauled at a dog park so now all dog parks should be eliminated?  Next thing you know, opposition to pickle ball courts because of the noise and bike lanes because of the reduced parking in their neighborhood will be on their wish list.

  53. 53.

    UncleEbeneezer

    It’s incredible that Walz was supporting LGBTQ rights in 1998.  Casual homophobia was still very much the norm among cis/het, white men, from what I remember.  Those who actually stood up for LGBTQ rights were pretty few and far between and had to take a lot of teasing for it from their peers.  Movies, tv and especially music (rock and rap, at least) still had a fair amount of homophobic epithets and stereotypes, at the time.

  54. 54.

    Sister Golden Bear

    @cmorenc: Appreciate the sentiment, but I just wanted to note that the trans universe is far, far broader than “the very tiny % who are born with their brains cross-wired opposite to their physical gender.”

    Among them, folks who are at home with the sex they were assigned at birth (I.e. not gender-related body dyphoria) but who feel more congruent expressing a different gender. Non-binary folks who may/may not have body dyphoria (and may/may not make changes to their bodies)—some of whom identify as trans and some who don’t. Folks who identify as “just cross dressers” (something sadly that’s too often a perjorative) who generally live as their gender assigned at birth, but who present as a different gender at times  (They’re also often deeply, deeply closeted  Among folks my age there’s likely 10 of them for every out trans woman.

    Gender often described as a spectrum, but I refer to it as a universe, because there’s so many wonderful variations.

  55. 55.

    geg6

    @cain:

    Same.  If someone mentioned him, I kinda knew he was governor in MN.  But I knew nothing about him and couldn’t have picked him out of a lineup.

  57. 57.

    FelonyGovt

    My daughter came out as gay when she was 14, in 2001. She and a couple of friends started a Gay Straight Alliance at her high school. The environment was VERY challenging and inhospitable at that time. When I told her what Walz had done, she quickly became a big fan.

  58. 58.

    ChrisSherbak

    @UncleEbeneezer: Exactly. I was in Chicago at the time, with ‘domestic partner’ benefits at work, so pretty insulated from all what was going on. I figured it’d be another decade or so before things got better. (We had at least survived and sorta prevailed over the horror of HIV/AIDS so figure that was the best we were going to get for the time.)

    I try not to be a one issue voter, but once I read this I knew I would crawl over glass, uphill both ways in the snow, to vote for Tim Walz and Kamala Harris. Being on our side way back then (and in MN!!!1!!) shows what an amazing human he is.

  60. 60.

    Rusty

    @Barbara: They hate everything public.  Public parks, public campgrounds,  public forests, everything public.  They want to sell everything off amd make it private.  You should have to pay to take your dog to a dog park.  They are crazy.

  61. 61.

    4D*hiker

    @brantl:

    It’s called “character.”

    Character is something that has gotten lost in this country with all the noise and spectacle of Trump and MAGA. It’s due for a revival…..and it’s why so many people are attracted to the Harris/ Walz ticket.

  64. 64.

    Nancy

    Sister Golden Bear’s clarification of transition gave me language to think clearly. That’s a gift I will treasure.

  66. 66.

    Nancy

    Sister Golden Bear,

    Thank you for the clarity of your discussion of the ways of transition. “Feeling congruent” may be what I see as deep joy in my trans daughter.

  71. 71.

    rikyrah

    @Sister Golden Bear:

    I wrote earlier this week when I saw the tweet reminding us of  the Anniversary Announcement that Magic Johnson had HIV.

    That was 1991.

    Arthur Ashe  died in 1993.

     

    Nobody who heard Magic that day thought that he would live long enough to raise his new baby, let alone live long enough to become a grandfather.

     

    Anyone who says that they did is a liar.

    I don’t believe the youth of today understands those dark times.

  74. 74.

    Armadillo

    @rebelsdad (aka texasboyshaun): good luck with that move. Tampa is not a bad place, but I feel it has become significantly more MAGA in recent years. Can I ask which memory care facility you are working with? Unfortunately in the process of looking for one for my father.

  77. 77.

    rebelsdad (aka texasboyshaun)

    @Rudi666: I’ll be in Pasco County *sobs*

    I survived 24 years in Texas, hopefully it can’t be much worse than that (if at all).

  78. 78.

    Armadillo

    @rebelsdad (aka texasboyshaun): if you survived Texas you should be OK. But I don’t have much experience of Pasco. Will defer to Betty Cracker and others. I guess you could always come into Tampa for relative doses of civilization. . .

     

    Good luck with your dad.

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