The Daily Populous Tuesday May 20th, 2025 evening edition
Authored by independent.co.uk and submitted by Helicase21

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Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz says Democrats should not abandon defending the rights of transgender people as they figure out how to win again.

The former Democratic nominee for vice president spoke to The Independent about the issue, which became a major weapon in Donald Trump’s campaign ads against former Vice President Kamala Harris.

“It's a mistake,” he insisted. “And here's the thing: we need to tell people your cost of eggs, your health care being denied, your homeowner’s insurance, your lack of getting warning on tornadoes coming has nothing to do with someone's gender.”

In recent months, some Democrats have hinted that Democrats should avoid talking about transgender athletes from participating in women’s sports. Gov. Gavin Newsom of California told Turning Point USA head Charlie Kirk on his podcast that trans participation in women’s sports was “unfair.”

“I think we have to figure out how to not get sucked in and allow that to be the focal point only, and that we can multitask, and we can hold several things simultaneously,” he said.

“We can protect LGBTQ rights and basic human rights at the same time, we can make sure that we hold drug companies accountable for high prices.”

Republicans have hammered Democrats on transgender issues in recent years. During the 2024 presidential election, Trump attacked Harris for providing gender-affirming care for prison inmates and for allowing trans athletes to participate in women’s sports, saying, “Kamala is for They/Them.”

Since taking office, Trump has signed numerous anti-transgender executive orders, such as saying the federal government will only recognize a person’s gender as defined at birth.

Earlier this month, the US Supreme Court ruled that the Trump administration can continue to ban transgender service members from the US military as legal challenges move through courts.

In February, Trump also signed an executive order banning transgender athletes from playing in women’s sports. Maine Gov. Janet Mills, a Democrat, challenged the Trump administration on the ban, which led to the administration freezing money to the state. The White House later unfroze the money for Maine’s child nutrition program after a court challenge.

As governor, Walz signed legislation making Minnesota a “trans refuge state” in 2023. The legislation prohibits the state from recognizing criminal or civil subpoenas for people’s health care records to prosecute clinicians for providing gender-affirming care to trans youth.

It also provides temporary jurisdiction for Minnesota courts if there is a custody dispute for a transgender person younger than 18 and is in the state until it is decided where the custody case should go.

Leigh Finke, the state’s first openly transgender state representative, and state Sen. Erin Maye Quade, who is a lesbian, sponsored the law in the legislature.

During the 2024 campaign, Walz’s opponent for the vice presidency, then-Sen. J.D. Vance, said that the law would “take children away from their parents if the parents don't want to consent to sex change.”

But Walz has also faced criticism from some progressives for a budget proposal brokered with Republicans in the legislature that removed undocumented immigrants from MinnesotaCare, the state’s low-income health care program for people who do not qualify for Medical Assistance, the state’s equivalent of Medicaid.

anythingfordopamine on May 20th, 2025 at 16:06 UTC »

The DNC at this point, while still better than the GOP, are ran by a bunch of soulless corporate fucks. They’re 2 faced slime balls with no convictions who will profess their values from the rooftops and then flip on those values at a moments perceived inconvenience. This is why they’re unlikable and untrustworthy to the public at large. Say what you want about the republicans, but at least they’re consistent. Consistently pieces of evil garbage, but consistent nonetheless

TransiTorri on May 20th, 2025 at 14:43 UTC »

Tim Walz is correct.

He got momentum behind him when he started calling them 'Weird' and that started hitting home and the GOP was becoming unglued.

Then the DNC muzzled him, the way they do Bernie, and both Kamala and Walz fell in line behind what market tested, milquetoast "Middle of the Road" "Ruffle no feathers" "What polls well with middle American white moms" focus groups told them.

Guess what happened. They lost. Like they lost in 2016, and probably would have lost in 2020 if not for the pandemic and chaos and swelling hate for Trump in that exact moment. And the losing losers who lose are still in their offices, making campaign plans to lose more elections, preaching "Stay the course"

If I failed at my job for 15 years, I'd be out on my ass. Must be nice to have that kind of job security.

Konukaame on May 20th, 2025 at 14:38 UTC »

Democratic consultants are so obsessed with polling and splitting hairs on specific issues that they completely lost the plot on actually having values.

For example, refocus on simple concepts (and in this proposal, also take back the words Republicans corrupted):

Freedom - to speak, to read, to be the person you want to be

Life - health care, living wages, worker protections, work-life balance, a clean environment

Justice - anti-corruption, neutering the oligarchs, meaningful reforms, accountability