GOP claims DFL will protect adults sexually attracted to children by deleting a sentence from 1993 law.
By Rochelle Olson
May 18, 2023 at 2:58PM
Minnesota’s Human Rights Act prohibits discrimination based on race, religion, disability, sex and other protected classes. (Leila Navidi, Star Tribune file/The Minnesota Star Tribune)
GOP lawmakers leveled a heavy accusation at the DFL majority during public safety debates in recent days, accusing them of protecting pedophiles — adults who are sexually attracted to children.
A disproportionate amount of debate in the House and Senate over the 500-plus page, $3.5 billion public safety bill focused on the removal of one sentence from the state's Human Rights Act (HRA): "Sexual orientation does not include a physical or sexual attachment to children by an adult."
Rep. Harry Niska, R-Ramsey, said some may now "interpret the HRA to deem pedophilia as a protected class in Minnesota, which prevents them from being denied employment, housing, education and more."
Jess Braverman, legal director for Gender Justice, a St. Paul nonprofit that has advocated for the change, called GOP complaints "manufactured outrage." To protect pedophiles in the HRA, the Legislature would have to specifically add them as a class, Braverman said.
Mike Steenson, professor of law at Mitchell Hamline School of Law, agreed with Braverman. "This doesn't create some sort of broad-based protection for those who prey on minors," he said.
The Minnesota Human Rights Act prohibits discrimination based on race, religion, disability, national origin, sex, marital status, familial status, age, sexual orientation and gender identity.
As for the potential for Minnesota judges to find that by removing that language, the Legislature's intent was to protect pedophiles, Steenson said, "I can't imagine any court would interpret it this way."
Earlier this session, Niska, a lawyer, added language to the bill that read: "The physical or sexual attachment to children by an adult is not a protected class under this chapter."
But that sentence was removed from the bill during House-Senate conference committee negotiations and wasn't in the final version of the bill sent to Gov. Tim Walz on Tuesday.
Niska accused Democrats of "putting politics ahead of kids and wearing ideological blinders instead of doing what's right."
Braverman and Steenson note that Minnesota statutes already criminalize adult sexual relationships with minors. Pedophilia "falls into a number of categories of criminal conduct, and that's not changing," Braverman said.
Steenson said it was hard to envision a scenario in which an adult in a sexual relationship with a minor could make a claim of discrimination. "I can't imagine what the argument would be if a pedophile walked into a restaurant with a 14-year-old partner and then was refused service," he said.
During the Senate debate late Friday night, a tearful Sen. Nathan Wesenberg, R-Little Falls, invoked Jesus and called the deletion of the language "disgusting." He urged colleagues to vote against the bill "lest the people of our state come to believe that the majority of this body supports protecting pedophilia."
Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Sen. Ron Latz, DFL-St. Louis Park and a lawyer, rebuffed Wesenberg's claim. "I would really like to put to rest the suggestion, the implication that people who have same-sex or same-gender attractions are pedophiles. That's really what's being hinted at here in this whole discussion," Latz said.
