We’ve already established how Tim Walz was the coolest, most-gay friendly high school football coach imaginable. The Minnesota governor helped turn a winless team into state champs, mentoring players along the way.

He was also the head of his school’s GSA, back when casual homophobia was the norm. Stressing kindness and compassion, Walz disproves the dated stereotype that football coaches are knuckle-dragging Neanderthals.

At a recent fundraiser in Boston, he acknowledged as much, taking a jab at far-right Alabama Senator Tommy Tuberville in the process. “I feel like one of my roles in this now is to be the anti-Tommy Tuberville, to show that football coaches are not the dumbest people,” said Walz.

Tuberville, who coached college football for nearly 40 years, embodies the regressive typecast to a tee. The former Auburn University head man is a staunch opponent of LGBTQ+ rights and championed legislation that would’ve prevented trans kids from playing on school sports teams in accordance with their gender identities.

His adherence to retrograde ideology is so extreme, he blocked hundreds of military promotions for almost a year to protest reimbursing soldiers traveling out of state for abortions.

During that time, Tuberville complained about the military’s decline, while carrying out his damaging one-man protest. Even his Republican colleagues turned against him, prompting him to end his attention-seeking gimmick.

All the while, it’s uncertain whether Tuberville actually grasps the role of a U.S. Senator. He’s misidentified the three branches of government and incorrectly indicated the U.S. fought against the Soviet Union in World War II.

Pretty dumb, right?! Then Tuberville opened his mouth and removed all doubt. He responded to Walz’s dig with a flurry of tired, right-wing talking points.

Related*

Tuberville repeated a number of distortions about Walz’s record, none of which are sticking. The last one–“Tampon Tim”–is especially childish.

As governor, Walz signed a bill that provides access to menstrual products for all students, ensuring that girls have access to tampons and other vital products. Twisting the bill’s inclusive language, Republicans have falsely claimed the legislation mandates that school administrators place menstrual products in boys’ bathrooms.

But the law says no such thing. The bill provides school districts with “considerable flexibility” in its implementation of the edict, the Star Tribune reports. “That might mean making these products available for free in various locations for all who need them, such as unisex bathrooms, girls’ bathrooms, the school nurse or the front office, but not necessarily in boys’ bathrooms.”

Most disgustingly, Republicans are using Walz’s stint with his school’s GSA as a way to imply he’s some sort of groomer or pervert. Those kinds of childish barbs are exactly the reason why Walz says he decided to lead the club at his rural high school in the first place.

“It really needed to be the football coach, who was the soldier and was straight and was married,” he told the Star Tribune.

Polls show that voters respect Walz’s decency. He’s enjoying a favorability rating of +9, which makes him much more popular than JD Vance. The unfavorables for Trump’s #2 are sitting at -10.

With those numbers in mind, Republicans getting really, really desperate. How else to explain their meltdown over… tacos?

It seems that Americans like a football coach who embodies everything that Tuberville doesn’t.

Help make sure LGBTQ+ stories are being told...

We can't rely on mainstream media to tell our stories. That's why we don't lock Queerty articles behind a paywall. Will you support our mission with a contribution today?

Once Monthly Annually

Cancel anytime · Proudly LGBTQ+ owned and operated