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Tim Walz celebrates Shepard family in HRC National Dinner speech

Minn. governor detailed his and running mate’s pro-LGBTQ records

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2 years ago

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Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz speaks at the 2024 Human Rights Campaign National Dinner at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center on Sept. 7, 2024. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

In a speech Saturday night at the Human Rights Campaign National Dinner, Minnesota governor and 2024 Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz discussed how he came to know the Shepard family when working in Congress to pass the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act.

“When the final vote was coming up in the House, it was going to be close,” he said. “I walked through the House floor, through the tunnels, from the Longworth House Office Building over to the Capitol, and I made that walk with Matthew’s mom, Judy Shepard, and the sheriff who found Matthew’s body tied to that fence post in Wyoming, and I remember walking with a mother who lost her son and hearing the sheriff tell me the only place he wasn’t bloody was where the tears ran down Matthew’s eyes.”

“I watched a mother and the unbelievable pain that I couldn’t even fathom, to lose a child this way, walk with her head held high to make sure that none of the rest of us ever have to get a call from someone,” Walz said.

The governor invited the crowd to applaud for Judy and Dennis Shepard, who were in attendance, adding that the room was full of “heroes” like them who had, in ways both big and small, endeavored “to make people’s lives a little bit easier.”

Walz began his speech by highlighting the many ways in which Vice President Kamala Harris has fought “every single day on the side of the American people,” relentlessly working to expand rights and protections for the LGBTQ community throughout her career and promising to build on this legacy if she is elected president in November.

“As the DA of San Francisco, Vice President Harris took one of the toughest stances in the nation against hate crimes,” he said. “She led the fight against the hateful gay and transgender panic defense.”

Walz continued, “she went on to become the attorney general of the largest state in the country, and the moment it arrived, to defend marriage equality. And she threw her whole self into that fight. You know Kamala Harris. She doesn’t just pick these fights when she talks about it, and this is the thing to keep in mind: All she does is win. All she does is win.”

“As a U.S. senator, she fought hard for the Equality Act, introduced a bill to make sure you had access to PrEP, and as vice president, and I say this, it is not a stretch, and the facts are there, this is the most pro LGBTQ+-administration in American history,” the governor said.

“She helped President Biden pass the landmark Respect for Marriage Act requiring every state and territory to fully honor same sex and interracial marriage,” Walz said. “She helped stop the ignorant and Byzantine practice of banning gay and bisexual men from donating blood.”

Harris has worked to improve mental healthcare for LGBTQ youth, he added, and “she made human rights for LGBTQ+ individuals around the world a top priority in this nation’s foreign policy” while working with the president on “historic executive orders protecting folks from discrimination.”

Walz then turned to his own record, beginning with his career as a schoolteacher and football coach before his election to Congress. He said, “some of my students, and this is in the late 90s, we’re concerned about an uptick in bullying amongst the gay lesbian community in our school.”

When one of those students, who was in the audience Saturday, had asked him to serve as faculty advisor for the gay straight alliance club, Walz recalled, “I said ‘absolutely.’ I understood what it meant to be that older, strange, white guy” standing up for the school’s LGBTQ students in such a public manner.

In 2006, when running for Congress as a Democrat in a deep-red district, “I was in a state that advanced same sex marriage for a decade,” Walz said. “But I knew I was right, and I ran on a platform that supported equality.”

The notion that he won despite taking pro-LGBTQ and pro-choice positions is misleading, the governor said — he won because of those reasons.

Walz then detailed how he fought for the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” as the top Democrat on the Veterans Affairs Committee, operating under the maxim that “you don’t get elected to office to bank political capital so you can get elected again” but rather “you get elected office to burn political capital to improve [people’s] lives.”

As governor, he said, the “first thing we did is we banned conversion therapy,” and throughout his first and second terms in office, “we protected the transgender community.”

“We banned banning books,” he said, pushing back against efforts to target and remove content with LGBTQ characters and themes, a preoccupation of Republicans including the 2024 GOP presidential and vice presidential nominees Donald Trump and U.S. Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio).

“This is what these folks are focusing on, spending all their time, like reading about two male penguins who love each other is somehow going to turn your children gay,” Walz said, setting up a contrast between the Democratic and Republican tickets.

The other side believes “the government should be free to invade every corner of our lives, our bedrooms, our kids’ schools, even our doctor’s office,” Walz said, and they have laid out a “playbook” to make that happen with Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation’s governing blueprint for a second Trump administration.

“This Project 2025 that’s out there to restrict freedoms, demonize this community, bully vulnerable children, the message is simple from all of us, and here in about 59 days, you’re going to get a chance to send that message: leave our kids the hell alone.”

Walz then pivoted to Trump’s ban on transgender military service members. “We’ve had thousands of brave transgender troops, decorated warriors, who served this country. When Donald Trump was commander-in-chief, he belittled them and he banned them from service. Thankfully, President Biden and vice president Harris rescinded that stupid, bigoted policy.”

He added, “If you want to serve this nation, you should be allowed to, and what we should do is respect that service. They should not get incoming fire from their commander-in-chief, attacking their basic dignity, humanity, and patriotism. And I will say this, I didn’t serve for 24 years in this to have those guys diminish another troop’s service.”

“We’re not going back to the discrimination,” Walz said. “We’re not going to force our children into situations where they become suicidal. We’re not going to continue to demonize people because of who they are, and we’re not going to continue to allow people in this country to go hungry or to be shot dead because we don’t make decisions that can improve that.”

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2026 Midterm Elections

Chris Pappas wins NH Democratic Senate primary

Gay congressman running to succeed retiring U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen

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1 day ago

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September 8, 2026

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U.S. Rep. Chris Pappas (D-N.H.) speaks at the LGBTQ+ Victory Fund's 2025 National Champagne Brunch in D.C. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

New Hampshire Congressman Chris Pappas on Tuesday won the Democratic primary in the race to succeed retiring U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) in the U.S. Senate.

Pappas defeated Karishma Manzur, who was his primary challenger, by a 61.8-36.1 percent margin.

The gay congressman will face off against former U.S. Sen. John E. Sununu, who defeated former U.S. Sen. Scott Brown in the Republican primary.

“Tonight’s victory sends a clear message that voters are looking for leaders who will fight for their rights, their freedoms, and to be treated with dignity and respect,” said Human Rights Campaign President Kelley Robinson in a statement. 

She campaigned for Pappas in Manchester, New Hampshire’s largest city, on Aug. 30.

“Chris Pappas has delivered results, stood up for equality, and showed up for the people he serves,” said Robinson in her statement. “HRC was proud to mobilize Equality Voters across New Hampshire to help power this win. We don’t have a second to waste between now and November. We look forward to continuing our work with Rep. Pappas as he drives toward victory in November so he can help return a pro-equality majority to the United States Senate.”

A poll the University of New Hampshire Survey Center released on Aug. 26 showed Sununu ahead of Pappas by a 45-43 percent margin if they were to face off in the general election. The margin of error is +/-2.1 percent.

Pappas would become the first openly gay man elected to the U.S. Senate if he were to win in November.

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2026 Midterm Elections

Markey’s primary win deemed success for LGBTQ activists

Mass. lawmaker champions transgender rights

Published

1 week ago

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September 2, 2026

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U.S. Sen. Ed Markey speaks outside of the U.S. Supreme Court on Jan. 13, 2026. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

U.S. Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) clinched the Democratic seat for his reelection campaign in Massachusetts’s primary election on Tuesday.

Markey won the deep-blue state with 64.8 percent of the vote, according to NBC News, triumphing over Marine Corps combat veteran and Congressman Seth Moulton, who received 35.2 percent of the vote.

Massachusetts’s primary election, which determined which Democratic candidate will head to the polls to face off against the Republican challenger in November, is being considered a victory for LGBTQ-inclusive policy, as well as for a divisive pro-transgender rights candidate — both things Markey has become an outspoken champion of.

Markey has experience at multiple levels of government, from the state level, where he served three terms in the state House of Representatives, to his federal tenure, including 20 terms in the U.S. House of Representatives and is now serving his second term as a senator. He has become a fixture of a changing Democratic Party in one of the most consistently blue places in the U.S.

This primary — and much of the national discussion surrounding the Senate seat — focused a lot of campaigning power on fighting the growing sentiment, led mostly by Republicans, that the frustration many Americans feel lends itself to an anti-establishment and anti-incumbent attitude.

Markey ran his campaign using his past as a reflection of his commitment to constantly putting his best foot forward for Bay Staters — particularly with apprehension for issues younger and more progressive democrats have been righting for — including Green New Deal and “Medicare for All” while Moulton — who was also elected to federal office prior to this run — campaigned on being younger than Markey, arguing that he was not the same type of established politician.

Moulton also faced backlash for negative comments about trans athletes, sparking criticism for those who did want younger candidate but want for trans rights to be protected.

Markey’s track record of supporting the LGBTQ community is one of the most clear in federal politics, one that has garnered a “100 percent lifetime voting record” on the Human Rights Campaign’s PAC politician review scorecard.

That list of Markey’s actions includes being a cosponsor of the Equality Act, driving landmark legislation to ensure federal protections for LGBTQ Americans, and being one of the most vocal proponents for trans rights in the federal government — specifically in multiple appropriations bills and in the National Defense Authorization Act. He was also the lead sponsor of the Transgender Health Care Access Act and the Transgender Bill of Rights resolution.

Markey first introduced the Transgender Bill of Rights in the Senate in 2023, where it ultimately failed to be brought to law. He reintroduced the legislation this year once again. This was a direct response to the attitude pushed by many conservatives after 2021, when the push to minimize trans rights started to become a key part of their cause and has been constantly propped up by the Trump-Vance administration.

“Massachusetts needs a senator who stands up and fights back, a senator who never forgets who they are fighting for,” Markey said during his victory speech. “That has been the mission of my life, and it always will be.”

Following the calling of the primary, a slew of LGBTQ organizations rallied behind Markey, many pushing his past as an asset that puts his money where his mouth is through advocating for legislation specifically protecting the LGBTQ community.

Tyler Hack, the executive director of the Christopher Street Project, an organization dedicated to pushing for legal protections for trans americans, released a statement following Markey’s win. Hack argued that putting forward such a staunchly pro-trans candidate is a win for the community, especially after endorsing him earlier this year.

“Tonight, anti-trans politics lost. Massachusetts rejected the idea that attacking transgender people is a shortcut to political power. Voters chose a different path: one where equality is not negotiable, cruelty is not courage, and transgender people do not have to disappear for Democrats to succeed.”

The Human Rights Campaign also endorsed him as a candidate earlier this year and issued a statement via its president, Kelley Robinson.

“Ed Markey has spent decades fighting for LGBTQ+ equality, for working people, and for a more livable world,” Robinson said. “He knows why equality matters. He’s stood with us no matter what. We were proud to endorse him this year, and when a pro-equality majority takes back the Senate this fall, we will continue to count on him as a champion for our community.”

Markey is running for reelection against Republican John Deaton in November, where he is expected to win.

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Congress

HRC president campaigns for Chris Pappas in NH

Gay congressman running to succeed retiring U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen

Published

1 week ago

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August 31, 2026

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Human Rights Campaign President Kelley Robinson, left, campaigns with U.S. Rep. Chris Pappas (D-N.H.) in Manchester, N.H., on Aug. 30, 2026. (Photo courtesy of the Human Rights Campaign)

Human Rights Campaign President Kelley Robinson on Sunday campaigned for U.S. Rep. Chris Pappas (D-N.H.) in New Hampshire.

Robinson traveled to Manchester, the state’s largest city, nine days before the Sept. 8 primary that will determine who will vie for retiring U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.)’s seat.

Former U.S. Sen. John E. Sununu, who represented New Hampshire in the U.S. Senate from 2003-2009, will face off against former U.S. Sen. Scott Brown, who represented Massachusetts in the U.S. Senate from 2010-2013, in the Republican primary.

Karishma Manzur is among the Democrats challenging Pappas.

A poll the University of New Hampshire Survey Center released on Aug. 26 shows Sununu is ahead of Brown. The same survey shows Pappas ahead of Manzur and his other Democratic challengers.

The UNH Survey Center poll shows Sununu ahead of Pappas by a 45-43 percent margin if they were to face off in the general election. The margin of error is +/-2.1 percent.

Pappas would become the first openly gay man elected to the U.S. Senate if he were to win in November.

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