J.D. Vance claims trans ally Tim Walz wants government to “steal your children”

Republican vice presidential nominee Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) spread misinformation that Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) passed a bill allowing transgender kids to be kidnapped from their unsupportive parents.

“He signed legislation, he supported legislation that would take children away from their parents if their parents don’t want to do sex changes,” Vance said at an event at Generation Church in Mesa, Arizona hosted by Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk on Wednesday. “He wants the government to steal your children from you if you don’t agree with Tim Walz’s values. That is not small government. That is disgusting, and he should be ashamed of himself.”

Related:

Donald Trump lies to crowd: Tim Walz let the state “kidnap children to change their gender”

The law they’re referring to prevents courts from removing custody because a parent allowed their kid to get gender-affirming care.

This is not the first time that this claim has been spread by the Trump-Vance campaign. Last month, Trump parroted it by saying that Walz allowed for the kidnapping of trans kids. LGBTQ Nation looked into this claim and found it to be untrue.

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The law they’re referring to is H.F. 146, a bill that Gov. Walz signed into law in late April 2023. The law does not take trans children out of the homes of non-supportive families. Rather, it renders out-of-state subpoenas unenforceable if it relates to any gender-affirming care accessed in Minnesota.

Additionally, the law prohibits any legal charges or extradition of trans youth who receive legal gender-affirming care in Minnesota. The law applies to court orders mandating that children be removed from their homes for accessing gender-affirming care out of their home state, effectively reducing the number of children who can be removed from their parent’s homes.

In fact, H.F. 146 says that “a law of another state that authorizes a state agency to remove a child from the child’s parent or guardian because the parent or guardian allowed the child to receive gender-affirming health care… is against the public policy of this state and must not be enforced” and that “a court order for the removal of a child issued in another state because the child’s parent or guardian assisted the child in receiving gender-affirming care in this state must not be enforced in this state.”

The most the law could do regarding where children live is in the case of a custody dispute. A Minnesota judge could take into consideration, as one of many factors, whether a parent supports or rejects gender-affirming care for their child. But court decisions aren’t based solely on this one thing, and custody decisions aren’t referred to as “kidnapping.”

There were additional fact checks on this claim by journalist Erin Reed and PolitiFact that deemed it false as well.

This wasn’t the only bit of misinformation that Vance spread — he also incorrectly claimed that “we have thousands of missing children because Kamala Harris let the cartels sex traffic minors in our own country,” saying this is “hard to believe.” According to a 2023 Department of Justice report, this is untrue. In fact, white men born in America are most likely to kidnap children.

Vance also appeared with far-right pastor Ryan Visconti, who went on a tirade opposing “secularism” as the removal of God from “the boardroom and the courtroom, the classroom and the bedroom.” He also claimed that “demonic gods who hate us” are promoting “DEI, sexual depravity, [and] radical gender ideology.”

Vance is scheduled to appear with many more figureheads from the far-right, including disgraced former Fox News host and neo-Nazi platformer Tucker Carlson, conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, Project 2025 architect and Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts, anti-LGBTQ+ bigot Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), and transphobe Donald Trump Jr.

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