An Aug. 7 Facebook post (direct link, archive link) includes an image of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz surrounded by children.
“Democrat VP Candidate Tim Walz Signed a Bill Redefining the Term ‘Sexual Orientation’ to INCLUDE PEDOPHILES,” reads the start of the post.
It was shared more than 200 times in less than a week. Another version of the claim spread widely on X, formerly Twitter.
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The bill Walz signed into legislation does no such thing. The state's definition of sexual orientation does not include pedophilia.
Minnesota Rep. Leigh Finke, a member of the state's Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, introduced HF1655, also known as the Take Pride Act, in February 2023. The bill aimed to update the state's Human Rights Act to protect againstLGBTQ+ discrimination and included a proposal to modernize the state's definition of sexual orientation.
The bill proposed removing the following line from the definition: “’Sexual orientation’ does not include a physical or sexual attachment to children by an adult.”
That proposed removal, to sever any perceived link between sexual orientation and pedophilia, led to mischaracterizations that the bill intended to give discrimination protection to pedophiles.
Though HF1655 was never voted on as a...
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