In an interview with ABC News on Sunday, JD Vance claimed that Minnesota Governor and Harris VP running mate Tim Walz signed a bill allowing the state to kidnap a transgender child if their parents did not approve of their transition. However, the bill Vance referenced actually provides refuge for transgender youth and their parents fleeing unsafe states where their care is criminalized. The legislation contains no provision allowing the state to “kidnap” children when their parents do not support their gender transition. These claims arise from an intentional misinterpretation of a provision that specifically applies to custody disputes between parents in different states.
In the interview, Vance sat down with "This Week" co-anchor Jonathan Karl, who pushed back against the claims:
Karl: “[Trump] said that Tim Walz signed a letter letting the state kidnap children to change their gender, allowing pedophiles to be exempt from crimes… this is not true, this is not remotely true.”
Vance: “What President Trump said, Jon, is that Tim Walz has supported taking children from their parents if the parents don't consent to gender reassignment, that is crazy…Tim Walz gets on his high horse about ‘mind your own damn business.’ One way of minding your own damn business, Jon, is to not try to take my children away from me.”
Karl: “He has not signed a law allowing the state to kidnap children to change their sexual identity.”
Vance: “What I just explained to you I would describe as kidnapping.”
Karl: “That’s crazy, come on.”The claim that HF 146, also known as the “Trans Refuge Law,” would allow the state to kidnap children stems from a deliberately misleading interpretation of the bill. Terry Schilling, president of the American Principles Project and director of millions of dollars in anti-transgender ads targeting Democrats, pointed to a section of the bill stating that the state can take jurisdiction if a child is “present in the state” and has been unable to obtain gender-affirming healthcare. Deliberate misinterpretations of this clause is the primary source of false claims about the Minnesota law.
You can see Schilling’s claim and the context here:
False claim that the state can “trans your kids” from American Principles Project Terry SchillingYou can see Schilling’s claim and the context here:What Vance, Schilling, and others fail to mention is that the provision in question applies to Section 518D of Minnesota law, known as the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act. This act, adopted by most states in the U.S., addresses disputes between divorced parents when one parent lives in or moves to a different state, or when multiple states have competing claims to jurisdiction over custody cases. The specific provision highlighted by Schilling and referred to by Trump and Vance states that the state can take “temporary emergency jurisdiction.” This does not equate to taking custody of the child; rather, it allows a judge to hear a case in a custody dispute where one parent resides in a state that criminalizes trans care and the other in a state where such care is legal. Notably, it does not even tell the judge who should be awarded custody, it merely allows a court in Minnesota to hear such a custody dispute.
Importantly, this change, which has been passed by more than 17 other states, comes in response to 24 states enacting bans on gender-affirming care. It also responds to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who threatened to use state powers to kidnap transgender children from parents supporting their transition by targeting them with child abuse investigations. These investigations have since been blocked in court.
More importantly, many states amended their versions of the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act in response to a law in Florida, first proposed in April 2023, that would have allowed the state to kidnap transgender youth from supportive families. Though that portion was amended out, the final version of that law, signed by Governor DeSantis, instead modified the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act, giving Florida emergency jurisdiction when a transgender youth “has been subjected to or is threatened with being subjected to sex-reassignment prescriptions or procedures.” Essentially, Florida signaled to other states that it would not honor custody agreements when one parent supported their transgender child, prompting many states to pass their own laws amending their custody jurisdictions in response.
See the Florida provision here, which has very similar wording to the Minnesota provision, but instead results in Florida ignoring custody agreements from states where a custodial parent supports their transgender child:
Florida SB254Most importantly, the claim that Walz supports the state “kidnapping children” from their parents to “trans” them is absolutely false. Walz signed a bill making the state a refuge for transgender people fleeing states that criminalize their care. The bill not only responds to states like Texas and Florida, which have indeed threatened to remove transgender kids from supportive parents, but also to cases where attorneys general attempted to subpoena medical records across state lines, such as when Attorney General Ken Paxton sought medical records from Seattle Children’s Hospital; a similar law protected transgender youth who received care there. Similar protections have also since been extended to abortion patients and providers, who face nearly identical issues.
When Trump and Vance make false claims about a “transgender kidnapping bill,” they are deliberately distorting the truth about what these bills actually do and why they are necessary. As transgender youth face increasing threats in nearly half of the states across the U.S., these refuge laws are seen as crucial for protecting vulnerable children and their families from hostile states that target their care from across state lines.
