The administration of Minnesota Governor Tim Walz (Democrat), Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate, has “made it a priority” to remove language from the Minnesota Human Rights Law that aims to protect children from pedophiles, state Assemblyman Harry Niska (R) said in an interview. Breitbart News Daily.
The Minnesota Human Rights Act is essentially the name of the state’s anti-discrimination law, but Democrats under Walz “pushed the envelope on our human rights law in terms of gender ideology.”
“That included removing language from the Human Rights Act that dates back to 1993, when sexual orientation protections were first included, making clear that those protections do not extend to an adult’s physical or sexual attachment tendencies or attachments to a child, which is not a protected status under the Minnesota Human Rights Act,” he said, explaining that Walz’s human rights commissioner “made it a priority to remove that language.” Niska said he had expressed concerns about the issue.
Slater noted that the section of the bill that focused on protections around sexual orientation stated that “it does not include a physical or sexual attachment by an adult to a child”, but that section had been removed.
“It’s been rescinded and replaced with something else, but I want to confirm exactly what you said, that the text that was rescinded has been there for decades. So for decades the Minnesota Human Rights Act has said that sexual orientation does not include pedophilia,” Slater asked, to which Niska acknowledged.
“Specifically, what you’re looking at is a bill that was signed by Tim Walz, and the line that you just read that was crossed out is what he, as a cabinet member and human rights commissioner, said to reporters. They took it upon themselves to draw a line there because they thought that line falsely equated being gay with being a pedophile,” Niska said, explaining that he proposed the amendment “to ensure that the principle still stands.” [there] … However, it is provided for elsewhere in the Human Rights Act and may not have the same relevance.”
But the Waltz administration didn’t agree.
Niska explained that he proposed an amendment to include language about pedophilia at the end of the act to make it clear that there is nothing in the human rights act that protects the status of adults who are attracted to children.
The House passed it unanimously, but the Walz administration stepped in to stop it from being included in the final bill, he said, making the administration’s position clear to Democrats who control the state Legislature and the governor’s office.
“And they put together a conference committee of Democrats. [that] “It was in there” but “died without any public discussion,” he said, recalling that Walz’s Cabinet human rights commissioner revealed in a closed-door meeting that the administration “didn’t want it, it wasn’t necessary, and so it wasn’t in the final bill.”
Niska removed the word, saying he was “concerned about using other, more general language, particularly given the pressure from academia to normalize ‘person who is sexually attracted to minors.'”
“We’re creating ambiguity that doesn’t need to be there and shouldn’t be there, and it’s dangerous in the long run and it’s creating an opportunity in the future for someone to argue that this is a status protected by the Minnesota Human Rights Act,” he warned. “It just seemed to me easier to close that opportunity now than to leave that opportunity open for a future trial.”
“And Tim Waltz refuses to close the door,” host Mike Slater added.
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Niska said Democrats have yet to show a sufficient reason not to include language in the bill making it clear that pedophilia will not be protected.
“There’s no reason not to do this. Not only is there no reason not to put it in the Minnesota Human Rights Act, but we’ve actually had informal discussions with Democrats about putting it in a whole separate chapter, a general statutory provision that applies to all laws,” he said. [that] “Nothing in Minnesota law creates a protected status for adults who are attracted to children,” the lawmaker explained.
“I’ve introduced another bill on that front, but Democrats aren’t going to accept it, so I don’t know what the justification is other than they don’t think there’s any reason to do something like this, or to acknowledge, even tacitly, that they’ve done something that would cause problems,” he added.
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