Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz speak at their first joint campaign appearance in Philadelphia on Aug. 6, 2024. (Screen capture/YouTube)
During a campaign rally in Philadelphia Aug. 6, Vice President Kamala Harris shared the story of how her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, served as faculty advisor to a gay-straight alliance in 1999 when he was a high school social studies teacher and football coach.
Speaking just hours after he was announced as Harris’s vice presidential candidate, she told the crowd that Walz “wasn’t only a role model on the football field” because “around that same time, Coach Walz was approached by student in his social studies class.”
The vice president continued, “The young man was one of the first openly gay students at the school, and was hoping to start a gay-straight alliance. At a time when acceptance was difficult to find for LGBTQ students, Tim knew the signal that it would send to have a football coach get involved.”
“So he signed up to be the group’s faculty advisor,” Harris said. “And as students said, he made the school a safe place for everybody.”
A campaign spokesperson for former President Donald Trump, along with Republican allies, criticized the Minnesota governor’s pro-LGBTQ record shortly after press outlets reported on Tuesday morning that he was selected to join the Democratic ticket.
“Tim and I have a message for Trump and others who would turn back the clock on our fundamental freedoms,” Harris said. “We’re not going back.”
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