WASHINGTON — Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz Saturday night touted his and Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris’ advocacy for LGBTQ rights in a keynote address he delivered at the Human Rights Campaign’s annual gala — and also criticized comments by his GOP opponent Sen. J.D. Vance that school shootings are a “fact of life.”

“It’s a fact of life, some people are gay,” Walz said in his remarks. “But you know what’s not a fact of life? That our children need to be shot dead in schools.”? In a Wednesday school shooting in Georgia at Apalachee High School, two students and two teachers were killed.

Vance, when asked at a campaign stop in Phoenix Thursday about policies to stop school shootings, said, “I don’t like this. I don’t like to admit this. I don’t like that this is a fact of life. But if you’re, if you are a psycho and you want to make headlines, you realize that our schools are soft targets, and we have got to bolster security at our schools.”

The school shooting renewed calls from Democrats to ban assault weapons, push for safe storage of firearms and enact red flag laws, which allow a court to temporarily remove firearms from an individual who is deemed a threat to themselves or others.

“Our kids should be free to go to school without being shot dead in the halls,” Walz said Saturday night.

In his speech, Walz praised Vice President Harris for her long history of supporting LGBTQ rights, including officiating some of the first marriages in California after the U.S. Supreme Court deemed same-sex marriage was a legal right in 2015.

“This is the most pro LGBTQ+ administration in American history,” Walz said of Harris and President Joe Biden, noting the enactment of the Respect for Marriage Act, which would ensure same-sex and interracial couples continue having their marriages recognized regardless of future U.S. Supreme Court rulings.

When Harris picked Walz as her running mate in early August, the Human Rights Campaign, which is the largest LGBTQ advocacy organization in the country, praised the decision.

“Coach Walz not only embraces the fabric of our community, he embraces the fabric of our society, that thing that lifts us up, that strengthens us, that connects all of us,” Human Rights Campaign President Kelley Robinson said before introducing Walz at the dinner.

Walz has a long history of supporting LGBTQ rights. As a teacher and coach, he said he agreed to serve as an adviser for the gay-straight alliance at the high school where he taught in the late 1990s after concerns were raised about queer students being bullied.

“I understood what it meant to be that older, straight, white guy who was coaching football,” he said. “It’s easy to be an ally, when it’s easy to be an ally. What really matters is knowing who’s going to be at your side and stand up when it’s hard.”

Advocacy in Congress

Walz said during his run for Congress in 2006, he was asked during a debate if he supported same-sex marriage.

“My marriage to my wife Gwen is the most important thing in my life. I love her deeply. Why would I stop anybody else from marrying the person they love?” he said. “That makes no sense.”

He highlighted his work in Congress as an early proponent of same-sex marriage and related how he voted to repeal the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy for gay, lesbian and bisexual military members.

“No one should get a pat on the back for doing what’s right,” he said. “For God’s sake, the bar is pretty damn low here to treat people like human beings. Equal justice under law, it’s not a high bar.”

Walz talked about his work passing the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009, which expands the federal hate crime law to include a crime motivated by the victim’s gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or disability. Matthew Shepard was a student who was tortured and murdered in Wyoming in 1998 because he was gay.

Walz said he walked to the U.S. Capitol for the final vote on the bill with Matthew’s mother and the sheriff who found Matthew’s body.

“I remember walking with a mother who’d lost her son and hearing the sheriff tell me the only place it wasn’t bloody is where the tears ran down Matthew’s eyes, and 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 told the crowd.

Walz said when he was elected governor, for the first time in more than a decade, Minnesota had control of both chambers in the state legislature and quickly moved to pass Democratic legislation.

“You don’t get elected to office to bank political capital, so you can get elected again,” Walz said. “You get elected (to) office to burn political capital to improve lives as quickly as you can.”

As governor, Walz signed an executive order protecting access to health care for transgender people and a “trans refuge” bill that protects transgender people and their families from legal repercussions if they travel to Minnesota to seek health care.

He also signed into law a ban on conversion therapy for children and adults.

“In Minnesota, you are seen, heard, loved and respected and safe,” he said of LGBTQ rights.

Book bans, school shootings

Walz heavily criticized Republicans who have led a wave of book bans by LGBTQ authors, and advocated for laws banning transgender student athletes and restricting access to health care for transgender people.

He noted that Minnesota passed a law that banned the act of banning books.

“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, and that’s what you should worry about,” he said.

Walz’s speech represented a stark difference with the GOP presidential ticket and former President Donald Trump’s false claims about transgender people.

During Trump’s first term, the administration rolled back an Obama-era regulation to mandate health care as a civil right for transgender patients under the Affordable Care Act. Trump also enacted a ban on transgender people from serving in the U.S. military, a policy the Biden administration rescinded.

Walz called it a “stupid, bigoted policy.”

“If you want to serve this nation, you should be allowed to, and what we should do is respect that service,” Walz said. “They should not get incoming fire from their commander in chief, attacking their basic dignity, humanity and patriotism.”

When Trump announced Vance as his running mate, the Human Rights Campaign and GLAAD, a national LGBTQ media advocacy group, raised concerns about past comments Vance made about LQBTQ people.

“I’ll stop calling people ‘groomers’ when they stop freaking out about bills that prevent the sexualization of my children,” Vance wrote on X, formerly Twitter, in 2022.

During a Saturday afternoon campaign rally in Mosinee, Wisconsin, Trump accused Walz of signing a bill to require menstrual products like tampons be available in boys bathrooms, which is not what the 2023 law says.

The law requires district or charter schools to provide menstrual products free to students in fourth grade through the end of high school. It does not specify which bathrooms must provide access to the products.

“He’s a wack job,” Trump said of Walz.

Trump also continued to perpetuate a false right-wing claim that children are obtaining surgeries at schools and changing their genders.

“Keep critical race theory and transgender insanity the hell out of our schools,” Trump said.

Cheney endorsement

In other campaign developments, former Republican Vice President Dick Cheney on Friday endorsed Harris for president. His daughter, former GOP U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney, also endorsed Harris.

Harris, who is in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, preparing for her debate with Trump, said Saturday that both Republicans put their country over their party.

“People are exhausted about the division and the attempts to kind of divide as Americans, and them stepping up to make this public statement, I think is courageous,” Harris said, according to White House pool reports.