Tim Walz did not sign law allowing state to 'take away' transgender children

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz signed a bill in 2023 giving legal protections to people from other states seeking gender-affirming care. However, after Vice President Kamala Harris named him as her running mate, conservative figures started claiming Minnesota's law allowed government officials to "kidnap" children whose parents refuse transgender-related medical care. This is false.

"Tim Walz signed a bill that lets the State take away ur kids if you d/n/ agree to sterilize them & chop off their body parts in the name of 'gender affirming care,"' says an August 6, 2024 post on Instagram with over 30,000 likes shared by Megyn Kelly, a conservative talk show host.

"So if your 14-yr-old is sad but thinks it's gender confusion & u object to castrate him, the St takes custody."

The same claim has circulated elsewhere on Instagram, Facebook, Threads, and  X -- including by Donald Trump Jr. and Texas Congressman Ronny Jackson.

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump amplified the claim that Walz allowed the state to "kidnap" children -- at a rally in Bozeman, Montana, on August 9, 2024. Vice presidential contender J.D. Vance also repeated it in an interview with Jonathan Karl on ABC News's "This Week" two days later (archived here and here).

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Screenshot from Instagram taken August 14, 2024

Since Harris named Walz to the Democratic ticket on August 6, the two-term governor and former congressman has been the target of various false and misleading claims about his past military and government record -- including a similar claim that he signed a law giving pedophiles civil protections in Minnesota.

But Walz did not approve a law allowing Minnesota courts to "take custody" of children from their parents solely for refusing to consent to gender-related medical care.

Three months into his second term as governor in March 2023, he did sign the Trans Refuge Bill, which gives legal protection to transgender people who come to Minnesota from other states to seek medical care -- including puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, permanent hair removal, voice therapy, and surgical interventions -- even if that treatment is illegal in their home state (archived here and here).

The bill allows Minnesota courts to consider whether a child is seeking gender-affirming care as a factor in whether it can make an initial determination in child custody cases between two parents. It also gives Minnesota courts temporary emergency jurisdiction in cases where a child comes to Minnesota from a state that does not allow gender affirming care.

Some Republican critics of the bill said it would allow children to receive "radical medical treatments" without guidance from their parents.

Contacted by AFP, Minnesota Senator Erin Maye Quade, who sponsored the Trans Refuge Act, said she was not surprised the law had been a target of misinformation. However, she said the state would not use the law to take custody away from parents. There would have to be evidence of prohibited or unlawful behavior, like child abuse, to justify that, she added. 

Walz also issued an executive order in March 2023 directing state agencies to protect people seeking and providing gender affirming health care and to ignore requests from other states' agencies to help penalize anyone coming to Minnesota for such treatment, unless required by a court order or another state or federal law (archived here).

The new Minnesota rules came as 15 states -- including neighboring North Dakota, South Dakota and Iowa -- banned at least some form of gender-affirming medical care between January 2021 and April 2023, according to the Movement Advance Project, a think tank (archived here).

'Nothing in the law' that revokes parents' custody

Courtney Joslin, a University of California, Davis professor who specializes in sexuality, gender and the law (archived here), said claims that Minnesota law authorizes the state to take custody of children whose parents refuse gender affirming care are "false."

"There is nothing in the law that even addresses that issue -- when a state can take custody of a child," she said in an email sent to AFP on August 13, 2024.

She also said the Trans Refuge Bill addressed a "very technical question" about how Minnesota courts hear custody cases between parents who live in different states. She said almost all states have to spell out how to interpret different custody and extradition laws from other states (archived here).

"Again, the law is really just procedural -- setting forth rules for determining in which state a custody action between two parents who live in different states should be filed," she said.

"It does not set forth substantive rules for how to allocate custody as between those parents. And, it does not address in any way when state officials can take custody of a child away from a parent."

Alithia Zamantakis, a research assistant professor at the Institute for Sexual and Gender Minority Health and Wellbeing at Northwestern University (archived here), said most physicians in Minnesota and the rest of the United States will not perform genital surgeries on patients under the age of 18, even if their parents consent, but may prescribe "reversible" drug treatments like puberty blockers and hormone replacement therapy.

"These two pieces of legislation are really protecting medically-necessary care -- this is care that has been proven in research to decrease suicidality, to help mitigate anxiety and depression, care that has been shown to increase happiness and comfort and ability to really navigate life as a transgender person," she said in an interview on August 14, 2024.

She also said the state would not use the law to take custody of a child to provide transgender-related medical care, and mostly gives state courts authority if another state attempts to prosecute or penalize someone for seeking that type of care in Minnesota.

"Minnesota, along with other states like Illinois, have similar legislation to really protect individuals who are leaving states that have banned gender affirming care," she said.

AFP contacted a spokesperson for Walz, but no response was forthcoming.

AFP has previously debunked false claims surrounding laws in the states of California and Washington that seek to protect children seeking gender affirming care.