Walz touts Democratic record of defending LGBTQ+ rights, says Harris will advance cause if elected

WASHINGTON (AP) — Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz touted Vice President Kamala Harris' record of defending LGBTQ+ rights on Saturday night, pledging to a supportive crowd that she will advance their cause if elected president.

Walz, the Democratic vice presidential nominee, headlined the national dinner for the Human Rights Campaign, which he praised as “the best party in the nation.” He entered the sprawling ballroom of 3,500 attendees to John Mellencamp's “Small Town” and a boisterous standing ovation from members of the nation’s largest LGBTQ+ organization.

He noted how Harris worked alongside President Joe Biden to issue executive orders protecting the rights of LGBTQ+ people in health care, the military and education.

"And the reason she did it was pretty simple. Kamala Harris believes in equal justice under law, and that means proper, complicated, equal justice under law. It is not to be debated," Walz said. “It’s not that difficult.”

Transgender youth and adults are facing growing restrictions in red states. Last year, HRC declared an emergency for LGBTQ+ people in the United States because of the proliferation of state laws restricting their rights. If elected, Republican Donald Trump has said he would replicate some of those restrictions at the federal level.

Not long after Biden dropped out of the 2024 race and endorsed Harris for president, HRC announced that it, too, would back her. The organization also applauded her selection of Walz as her running mate, citing his own long record of supporting LGBTQ+ youth and backing same-sex marriage.

On Saturday night, Walz recounted how he taught social studies and coached football at a Minnesota high school in the 1990's — and was unexpectedly approached by a student asking him to serve as the faculty adviser of the Gay-Straight Alliance.

He also outlined a litany of Harris's achievements on LGBTQ+ issues, recalling an episode in when, as attorney general of California, she had to personally call a Los Angeles clerk who was declining to issue marriage license to same-sex couples.

“'You must start the marriages immediately,'” Harris told the clerk, according to Walz. “She had the best line then. She told the clerk, ‘Have a good day. It’s going to be a fun one.'”

He urged the crowd to work to help elect Harris, outlining what could happen if Trump got a second term in the White House. Trump's policy proposals would “restrict freedom, bully this community, demonize vulnerable children," Walz said.

Trump has made attacks on transgender people a mainstay of his campaign rhetoric as he seeks his second term in office. It marks an about-face for Trump, who in his 2016 address to the Republican National Convention called for the party to protect LGBTQ+ people.

If reelected, Trump has pledged in his policy platform to stop public schools “from promoting gender transition” and to revoke federal funding from any school that teaches what he calls “radical gender ideology.” In a video posted online last year, Trump also said he would punish doctors who administer gender-affirming care to transgender youth by cutting them off from Medicare and Medicaid and teachers who “suggest to a child that they could be trapped in the wrong body.”

At an event last week for Moms for Liberty, Trump went after Algerian boxer Imane Khelif, continuing to spread misinformation about the Olympic gold medalist being transgender and having an unfair advantage over her competitors. He then pushed the outlandish claim that public schools are performing gender-affirming surgeries.

“Your kid goes to school. And comes home a few days later with an operation,” Trump said at the group’s national summit. He repeated the assertion at a rally Saturday. Transgender youth rarely undergo gender-confirmation surgery anywhere.

Asked about the comments, a campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt could not provide any examples to substantiate his claim. But she pointed to reports that thousands of K-12 schools have rules that bar teachers from telling parents if their child asks to use pronouns that deviate from those on their birth certificate.

“President Trump will ensure all Americans are treated equally under the law regardless of race, gender, or sexual orientation,” Leavitt said. She added that the former president does not believe children should be allowed to have what she called “permanent gender mutilation surgeries."

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Democratic vice presidential candidate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz speaks during the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) National Dinner at Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, Saturday, Sept. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

Democratic vice presidential candidate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz speaks during the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) National Dinner at Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, Saturday, Sept. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

Democratic vice presidential candidate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz speaks during the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) National Dinner at Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, Saturday, Sept. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

Democratic vice presidential candidate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz speaks during the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) National Dinner at Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, Saturday, Sept. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

Democratic vice presidential candidate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz speaks during the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) National Dinner at Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, Saturday, Sept. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stock indexes are drifting near their records Monday as Wall Street gears up for the most anticipated meeting of the Federal Reserve in years.

The S&P 500 was 0.2% lower in midday trading after flitting between gains and losses earlier in the morning. It's sitting just 0.9% below its all-time high set in July.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 83 points, or 0.2%, as of 11:30 a.m. Eastern time, after climbing above its record closing high earlier in the day. The Nasdaq composite was down 0.7%.

Oracle rose 5.4% to help lead the market, continuing a strong run that began last week with a better-than-expected profit report. Alcoa also jumped 9% after saying it would sell its ownership stake in a Saudi Arabian joint venture to Saudi Arabian Mining Co. for $950 million in stock and $150 million in cash. But drops for some influential Big Tech stocks dragged on indexes, including declines of 2.8% for Apple and 1.9% for Nvidia.

Treasury yields eased in the bond market ahead of what’s expected to be the week’s main event. On Wednesday, the widespread expectation is for the Federal Reserve to cut its main interest rate for the first time in more than four years to deliver some relief to the economy.

The only question is by how much the Fed will cut. Traders are shifting more bets toward a larger-than-usual move of half a percentage point, according to data from CME Group. They’re anticipating a 61% chance the Fed will go beyond the more traditional cut of a quarter of a percentage point. That’s up from 50% on Friday and just 30% a week ago.

The difference between a half-point cut and a quarter may sound academic, but it can have far-ranging effects. While lowering rates relieves pressure on the economy, it can also give inflation more fuel.

The Federal Reserve has been keeping its main interest rate at a two-decade high in hopes of slowing the economy enough to stifle high inflation. With inflation having eased substantially from its peak two summers ago, the Fed has said it can turn more focus to bolstering the slowing job market and economy. Some critics say it may be moving too late, increasing the risk of a possible recession.

A Fed cut of half a percentage point would likely be the best case for the stock market in the very short term, according to Michael Wilson and other strategists at Morgan Stanley. But that's only if the Fed can convince investors it's not getting forced into a bigger-than-usual cut because of worries about a recession, among other factors.

Still, the more important thing for where stocks are heading over the next three to six months will be how well the job market holds up, according to Wilson. If employment weakens, stocks could fall regardless of whether the Fed cuts by half or a quarter of a percentage point on Wednesday.

In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury edged down to 3.63% from 3.66% late Friday. The two-year yield, which moves more closely with expectations for the Fed, eased to 3.55% from 3.59%.

That was despite a report in the morning showing manufacturing in New York state returned to growth in September. That surprised economists, who were expecting another month of contraction for an area of the economy that’s been hit hard by high interest rates.

On Wall Street, Carl Icahn's Icahn Enterprises rose 7.1% after it said a U.S. judge dismissed a proposed class-action lawsuit against the company, one based on allegations by a research firm that looks for financial irregularities and tries to profit when the stock prices fall.

Fertilizer producer Mosaic fell 4.8% after it said electrical equipment failures at mines and Hurricane Francine will reduce its production of potash and phosphate in the current quarter.

In stock markets abroad, indexes were mixed amid mostly modest movements across Europe and Asia. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng added 0.3% after data released over the weekend showed China’s economy slowed further in August.

Markets in Japan, mainland China and South Korea were closed for holidays.

AP Writers Matt Ott and Zimo Zhong contributed.

FILE - The American flag hangs from the front of the New York Stock Exchange on Sept. 10, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Peter Morgan, File)

FILE - A currency trader passes by a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), top center left, at the foreign exchange dealing room of the KEB Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, on Sept. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon, File)

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