MINNEAPOLIS – Gwen Walz, wife of Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate Tim Walz, criticized former President Donald Trump and running mate JD Vance during a Human Rights Campaign dinner on Saturday, putting her own spin on her husband’s signature phrase.

“Mr. Trump and Mr. Vance, please mind your own business!” Walz declared to the crowd at the LGBTQ+ civil rights organization event in Minneapolis. She encouraged the audience to repeat her words, and they echoed her in unison. “We’re going to use that word ‘please’ in there because remember, we’re being teachers.”

Speaking to a room of 600 at the Hyatt Regency hotel, the former educator highlighted her husband’s record of advocating for the LGBTQ+ community in Congress and as governor, including his executive order to protect gender-affirming care and ban conversion therapy..

In 1999, Tim Walz became the first faculty adviser to his high school’s gay-straight alliance group in Mankato, Minnesota. Jacob Reitan, the student who founded the group, was in the audience on Saturday.

“We knew what these students were facing, and our classrooms had to be safe harbors,” she said. “I began every semester by stating, ‘This class is a safe space for all students, including those who are gay.’ And each semester, I had to report to the principal’s office for that statement.” The crowd erupted in laughter.

The 58-year-old mother of two shared how she enlisted her husband’s football team to assist with the high school’s production of Bye, Bye, Birdie in an effort to bridge the gap between two opposing social groups. She elicited another roar of laughter when she joked, “You’ve probably all been in that one,” referring to the classic musical.