What a Harris-Walz Administration could mean for queer kids
This piece was first published in The Fallout, our weekly newsletter. This difference became more extreme when Vice President Kamala Harris named Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate this week.
Finally, Democrats are getting serious about protecting queer kids.
Harris choosing Walz as her running mate sends a very clear signal of support to LGBTQ+ students and their families. Walz’s record as both a teacher, and as governor, shows a genuine compassion for the problems queer teens and kids face. These include increased bullying and harassment to a higher incidence of self-harm or suicide. In the late ’90s, as a high school teacher, Walz was the faculty adviser for his school’s first gay-straight alliance; as governor, he signed into law bills banning conversion therapy and protecting gender-affirming care in Minnesota.
This matters, especially given the target conservatives have placed on the back of trans students and Title IX, the historic civil rights legislation that prohibits sex-based discrimination by any school or university that receives federal funding.
And while any potential Harris running mate was going to align with the party’s platform of supporting LGBTQ+ rights, Walz in particular has made being a good adult to kids in his community a key part of his personality and record as governor.
A lot is on the line for LGBTQ+ students and their families. The Biden administration’s revised Title IX rule for sex-based discrimination at schools and colleges went into effect a week ago. However, it is still blocked in more than 20 other states due to injunctions from conservative attorneys general, and groups like Moms for Liberty. This week’s Boom! episode will also bring Title IX in line with Title VII, which is the federal civil rights law that prohibits sexism in the workplace. The Supreme Court decision in Bostock V. Clayton County has now expanded Title VII to include sexual orientation and gender identification. Listen to Lawyered as Chris Geidner discusses this important rulemaking from the Biden Administration. I hope that Harris and Walz will continue to embrace LGBTQ+ students, their families and make legislation for their benefit an important part of their campaign. Bullying trans children is not only weird, it’s downright evil. I hope that this will be the first time Democrats say so out loud.
