Exclusive — MN State Rep. Harry Niska: Tim Walz Admin “Made It a Priority” to Delete Language from Law That Protected Children from Pedophiles

The administration of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D), Vice President Kamala Harris’s choice for running mate, “made it a priority” to delete language in the Minnesota Human Rights Act intended to protect children from pedophiles, State Rep. Harry Niska (R) revealed during an interview on Breitbart News Daily.

The Minnesota Human Rights Act is essentially a name for the state’s anti-discrimination statute, but Democrats in Walz’s administration “have really pushed the envelope in terms of gender ideology into our Human Rights Act.”

“And that included deleting from the Human Rights Act some language that specifically made clear — this is language that went back to 1993, when sexual orientation protections were first written into it — that made clear that that protection does not extend to the proclivity or the attachment of the physical or sexual attachment of children by adults — that that’s not a status that is protected by the Minnesota Human Rights Act,” he said, explaining that Walz’s human rights commissioner “made it a priority to delete that language.” Niska said he raised concerns on that issue.

Slater observed that the part of the bill zeroing in on protections referring to sexual orientation specified it “does not include a physical or sexual attachment to children by an adult,” but that part was crossed out.

“That is crossed out and replaced with something else. But what you said, I want to check it right. You’re telling me that that text that was then crossed out has been around for decades. So for decades, it’s already been in the Minnesota Human Rights Act that sexual orientation does not include pedophilia,” Slater asked, and Niska confirmed.

“Specifically, what you’re looking at is the bill that Tim Walz signed, and the language that’s crossed out there that you just read is language that his Cabinet member, his human rights commissioner, said — has told the press that was their initiative to cross that out because they thought that that language was wrongly equating, you know, being gay with being a pedophile,” Niska said, explaining that he offered an amendment to “make sure that that principle is still [there] … but just in a different place in the Human Rights Act, where it wouldn’t have that same connection.”

But Walz’s administration was not in agreement with that, either.

Niska explained that he offered an amendment to put the pedophilia line at the end of the act, making it clear that “nothing in this Human Rights Act protects the status of being an adult who’s attracted to children.”

The House unanimously voted for it, but the Walz administration intervened and ensured it was not in the final bill, he said, revealing that the administration made its position clear to the Democrat Party, which controls the legislature and governor’s office in the state.

“And they made clear to the all-Democrat conference committee that they didn’t want [that] in there,” and they “dropped it without any public discussion.” He recalled that the human rights commissioner in Walz’s Cabinet revealed in a private meeting that the administration “didn’t want it, and it was unnecessary, and that’s why it wasn’t going to be in the final bill.”

Niska said he is concerned about striking the language and “using other, more general language, especially given the academic push” for normalizing … “minor-attracted persons.”

“We’re creating an ambiguity that doesn’t need to be there and shouldn’t be there and is dangerous in the long term, creating an opening for some future case where someone will argue that this is a status that is protected by the Minnesota Human Rights Act,” he warned. “It seemed to me it was easy enough to close that door now than to leave that open for some future court case.”

“And Tim Walz refused to close that door,” host Mike Slater added.

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Niska said the Democrats have yet to provide a good reason for not including language in the bill to make it clear that pedophilia is not protected.

“There’s no good reason not to do this. And not only was there no good reason not to put in the Minnesota Human Rights Act, we actually …  talked with Democrats privately about just putting it in a totally different chapter, that’s just general statutory provisions that apply to all the statutes to say [that] nothing in the Minnesota statutes …  creates a protected status of being an adult attracted to children,” the lawmaker explained.

“I introduced a bill, a separate bill on that front, but the Democrats aren’t willing to accept that either. So I don’t know what the good reason is, other than just they don’t believe that there’s any reason to do anything like this, or any reason to admit, even implicitly, that they did something that creates a problem,” he added.

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