On Saturday Minnesota Governor Tim Walz took a break from campaigning in swing states to address the largest pro-LGBTQ+ rights group in the country about his first run for Congress in 2006 in a Republican district when he was asked about whether he supported civil unions for gay couples.
“I said, ‘sure, if that’s your thing,’” Walz told attendees at the Human Rights Campaign’s annual dinner on Saturday evening. “But I said, my marriage, 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? That makes no sense.”
At the time, many Democrats had run away from supporting same-sex marriage and had a tenuous relationship with gay rights at best. Two years before, George W Bush had won re-election by supporting a constitutional amendment defining marriage as between a man and a woman. Shortly after, Walz won his race in 2006 and people praised him for winning despite supporting abortion rights and same-sex marriage.