At a Human Rights Campaign dinner in Minneapolis, Gwen Walz, wife of Tim Walz, the running mate of Vice President Kamala Harris, strongly criticized former President Donald Trump and his running mate, Senator JD Vance, in a speech that combined humor and passionate advocacy. Speaking to a crowd of 600 attendees at the Hyatt Regency hotel, Gwen Walz, a former educator, humorously adapted her husband’s well-known phrase, addressing Trump and Vance directly: “Mr. Trump and Mr. Vance, please mind your own business!” She invited the audience to repeat the phrase with her, reminding them, “We’re going to use that word ‘please’ in there because remember, we’re being teachers.”
Walz highlighted her husband’s long-standing commitment to the LGBTQ+ community, both as a member of Congress and as governor of Minnesota. She cited his efforts to sign an executive order that protects gender-affirming care and his move to ban conversion therapy. Reflecting on her own experience as an educator, Walz shared stories from her time teaching, where she made it a point to create a safe space for all students, including those from the LGBTQ+ community. She revealed that each semester she would open her class by stating, “This class here is a safe space for all students, including those who are gay.” This statement often led her to being called into the principal’s office, a comment that drew laughter from the audience.
Gwen Walz also shared a lighthearted story about how she recruited members of her husband’s football team to assist with a high school production of Bye Bye Birdie. Her goal was to bridge divides between opposing social groups, a move that also earned laughter and applause from the audience.
Throughout her speech, Walz did not hold back in criticizing the political positions of Trump and Vance, especially regarding LGBTQ+ rights. She specifically tied the two to Project 2025, a far-right political agenda promoted by The Heritage Foundation, which includes numerous anti-LGBTQ+ proposals. Although Trump has attempted to distance himself from the project, many of his allies were involved in its creation. Walz stated, “They want to pretend you do not exist,” but she emphasized the hard-fought progress made by the LGBTQ+ community and made it clear: “We are not going back.”
Walz’s speech also referenced earlier comments by JD Vance, who had controversially remarked that school shootings were a “fact of life.” Tim Walz had already condemned Vance’s statement at a previous Human Rights Campaign event in Washington, D.C., where he contrasted Vance’s comments with the real needs of children, particularly their safety in schools. He mocked Republican efforts to ban books with LGBTQ+ content, saying, “This is what these folks are focusing on spending their time on, like reading about two male penguins who love each other is somehow going to turn your children gay.” He pointedly added, “It’s a fact of life some people are gay, but you know what’s not a fact of life? That our children need to be shot dead in schools. That’s not a fact of life.”
As Gwen Walz closed her speech, she emphasized the high stakes of the upcoming election. She framed the 2024 presidential race as a pivotal moment for the rights and freedoms of LGBTQ+ individuals, stressing that past generations had “marched, fought, and bled” for those rights. She affirmed that, if elected, her husband Tim Walz and Kamala Harris would continue to stand as fierce advocates for the LGBTQ+ community and safeguard their rights for future generations.