No, Tim Walz didn’t sign a bill giving legal protections to pedophiles

Republicans claim Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz approved legal protections for pedophiles as Minnesota governor.

RNC Research, an X account run by former President Donald Trump’s campaign and the Republican National Committee, posted Aug. 6 that Walz signed a bill into law "removing ‘physical or sexual attachment to children by an adult’ from (Minnesota’s) human rights law — redefining ‘sexual orientation’ to include pedophiles."

Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., reshared this X post and wrote, "Anyone who extends equal rights protections to pedophiles has no business anywhere near the White House."

Conservative commentator and podcast host Isabel Brown made a similar claim on Instagram. The caption of her Aug. 7 post read, "Last February, the state of Minnesota (& Governor Walz) updated the law’s definition of s*xual orientation to SPECIFICALLY INCLUDE adults who are attracted to children in a physical or s*xual manner."

And an Aug. 9 Threads post claimed Walz signed a bill that "made pedophiles a protected class in Minnesota."

(Screengrabs from X and Instagram)

The Instagram and Threads posts were flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and Threads.)

These claims mislead about the measure, called the "Take Pride Act," which did not add protections for pedophiles. It clarified definitions for sexual orientation and gender identity in the state’s human rights law. It doesn’t include pedophiles in these definitions, nor does it give pedophiles legal protections.

Democratic state Rep. Leigh Finke, Minnesota’s first transgender legislator, introduced the bill, House File 1655, in February 2023. It passed the Legislature as part of a larger public safety bill, and Walz signed it into law in May 2023.

The Take Pride Act amended the existing definition of "sexual orientation" in the Human Rights Act and created a new definition for "gender identity." Both were already protected classes under Minnesota law.

The Minnesota Human Rights Act prohibits discrimination in employment, housing, public accommodations, public services, education, credit and business based on race, religion, disability, national origin, sex, marital status, familial status, age, sexual orientation and gender identity.

During a March 2023 state House panel discussion of the bill, Finke said it "modernizes" the Human Rights Act, "bringing a more contemporary understanding" of sexual orientation and gender identity.

The bill amended the definition of "sexual orientation" to remove a line that said: "‘Sexual orientation’ does not include a physical or sexual attachment to children by an adult."

Critics have pointed to that change as proof the measure added protections for pedophiles. But lawmakers who supported the bill said the updated language aimed to sever any perceived ties between pedophilia and a person’s sexual orientation.

In May 2023, before the bill passed, PolitiFact fact-checked a similar claim that the bill would make it "illegal to discriminate against child rapists." We rated this False.

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Legal experts we interviewed in May 2023 said laws prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation do not protect pedophiles, even if they do not include that specific disclaimer.

Minnesota statutes already specify that sexual orientation is about having attachments to another person regardless of that person’s sex, not that person’s age, Brian Soucek, a law professor at the University of California, Davis School of Law, told PolitiFact in May 2023.

"No court in the country has or would ever say that a law protecting people from discrimination based on their sexual orientation extends to protecting pedophilia," Soucek said.

Democratic state Rep. Jamie Becker-Finn said during an April 26, 2023, legislative session that the provision amending the "sexual orientation" definition had "gone off the rails a bit on social media."

"Nothing in the bill changes or weakens any of the crimes against children in our criminal statute, or the state’s ability to prosecute those who break the law. Of course pedophilia is not a protected class, is not a sexual orientation, which is why the language never should have been in the bill in the first place," Becker-Finn said.

Before the bill passed, Republican state Rep. Harry Niska added language to the bill that said: "The physical or sexual attachment to children by an adult is not a protected class under this chapter." But lawmakers later removed this language, and it was not included in the final text of the bill that Walz signed, the Minnesota Star Tribune reported.

In Minnesota, penetration with a person younger than 18 or sexual contact with a person younger than 14 is subject to a charge of first-degree criminal sexual conduct, punishable by up to 30 years of imprisonment, a fine of up to $40,000, or both.

We rate the claim that Walz signed a bill "redefining ‘sexual orientation’ to include pedophiles" False.

PolitiFact Staff Writer Loreben Tuquero contributed to this report.