Video of Tim Walz’s Remarks About Gay Penguins Takes Off Online

A video of Minnesota Governor Tim Walz’s remarks about gay penguins during Saturday’s national dinner for the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) has taken off online

Walz, the Democratic vice-presidential nominee, headlined the dinner for the HRC, a major LGBTQ+ advocacy group, in Washington, D.C., as he touted Vice President Kamala Harris’ record of defending LGBTQ+ rights.

In a video posted on Saturday evening to X, formerly Twitter, Acyn, a senior digital editor for MeidasTouch, shared a video of Walz speaking at Saturday’s event as he took aim at the Republican ticket.

“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,” Walz said, which led to extended laughs from the crowd. “Here’s what I tell you, 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 of Sunday morning, the video has garnered over 1.7 million views, with other X users such as The Tennessee Holler sharing the video with over 52,000 views.

Walz added: “Folks are banning books, but they’re okay with weapons of war being in our schools. Look, that’s not this country…we are going to make sure our children are seen, they bring their authentic selves and then we are going to make sure they’re safe when they get there.”

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Walz: This is what these folks are focusing on. Like reading about about two male penguins who love each other is somehow going to turn your children gay… It’s a fact of life some people are gay, but you know what’s not a fact of life? That our children get shot dead in schools. pic.twitter.com/tFAXOMkZNG

— Acyn (@Acyn) September 8, 2024

Saturday’s comments come after a school shooting in Winder, Georgia, on Wednesday left four dead and injured at least nine others.

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) identified the suspect as 14-year-old student Colt Gray. The agency confirmed four casualties, including two students and two teachers, and nine hospitalized after the mass shooting. Gray is in custody and will be charged with murder and tried as an adult, according to the GBI.

Walz’s remarks are also seemingly a response to former President Donald Trump’s running mate Ohio Senator JD Vance’s comments about the shooting after he responded to a reporter’s question on Thursday.

“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,” Vance said at a campaign event in Phoenix.

According to Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund, an independent, non-partisan organization dedicated to reducing gun violence in the United States, there are a total of 848 incidents of gunfire on school grounds from 2013 through 2021. Of these incidents, 573 occurred on the grounds of a preschool, elementary, middle or high school, resulting in 188 deaths and 392 people wounded and nearly half (at least 46 percent) of the victims in these incidents were students.

Newsweek has reached out to Walz’s spokesperson and Vance’s spokesperson via email for comment.

Meanwhile, this also comes as banning books in the U.S. has remained a contentious issue, with conservative advocates saying the aim is to prevent vulnerable people such as children from accessing what they deem to be harmful material. However, nonprofit-organization, PEN America says this most frequently targets “female, people of color, and/or LGBTQ+ individuals.”

LGBTQ+ youth have been faced with hundreds of bills nationwide as conservative lawmakers have been moving to limit LGBTQ people’s rights such as access to gender affirming care, use of bathroom facilities, and participation in sports in places such as Texas, Florida and Virginia. According to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), at least 510 anti-LGBTQ+ bills were introduced in state legislatures across the country in 2023.

During Saturday’s speech, Walz urged the crowd to work to help elect Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, outlining what could happen if Trump got a second term in the White House as his policy proposals would “restrict freedom, bully this community, demonize vulnerable children,” Walz said.

According to the Associated Press, if reelected, Trump has said he would replicate some of those restrictions at the federal level as he has pledged in his policy platform to stop public schools “from promoting gender transition” and to revoke federal funding from any school that teaches what he calls “radical gender ideology.”