A reality check on the 'Tampon Tim' meme
By: Editorial Board (StarTribune)
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
A smart, compassionate new state law is spurring misinformed attacks on Minnesota's latest vice presidential contender: Gov. Tim Walz.
By Editorial Board
Star Tribune
August 9, 2024 at 12:14AMKristy Wesson and Margie Solomon of the National Council of Jewish Women Minnesota and student Elif Ozturk delivered menstrual products to Hopkins High School in 2022. Ozturk and community advocates were pushing for a bill, subsequently made law, to require public schools to provide such products. CommentGiftShareListen
Opinion editor's note:Editorials represent the opinions of the Star Tribune Editorial Board, which operates independently from the newsroom.
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On Tuesday, Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris tapped Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate. By Wednesday, the opposition had mobilized with lightning speed for its one of its first political attacks, dubbing Walz "Tampon Tim" in reference to a new state law providing free menstrual products to school students.
The nickname was trending nationally this week on Twitter, an indicator of its political currency. Chaya Raichik, whose scurrilous "Libs of TikTok" account on X (formerly Twitter) has more than 3 million followers, was one of the first to amplify it. Former Fox News host Megyn Kelly added to the momentum, endorsing the nickname via tweet. Former First Lady Hillary Clinton weighed in from a different angle, with a tweet supporting the Minnesota measure.
Social-media users swiftly took sides as well, and as usual, facts and context were missing, especially from those who see the new law as evidence of a radical Minnesota under Walz's leadership. But a closer, more informed look at the issue should yield a different conclusion. This is good and necessary policy. Providing free menstrual products is a practical, compassionate remedy to address an under-the-radar reason for student absenteeism. Some families can't afford menstrual products, and when that happens students stay home instead of going to class, falling behind as they do.
There's a lot of talk about closing educational achievement gaps in Minnesota and elsewhere, particularly for low-income students. The new state law, which has a price tag of about $2 million a year, is an actual solution to help address this, one that's relatively low-cost. And there's real-world data to back it up. New York City schools reported a 2.4% increase in attendance after a state law went into effect requiring free period products for students, according to the advocacy group Alliance for Period Supplies.
Minnesota is far from alone in providing this type of assistance. More than half of the nation's 50 states have taken steps to help students who struggle to afford tampons and pads. Ohio, led by Republican Gov. Mike DeWine, now requires period products in schools and has provided $5 million in funding for this, the Alliance for Period Supplies reports. Alabama and Georgia provide grants for schools to make free products available.
Other states, such as Washington, Nevada, Illinois and Utah, require schools to provide these products, though they didn't fund them. To Minnesota's legislators' credit, the new law provides dollars to schools and is not an unfunded mandate.
Other background information is also useful as the dubious online debate continues.
The new law went into effect in January and applies to students in grades four through 12. The legislation itself was passed during the 2023 session as part of a broader educational bill, which Walz then signed. Rep. Sandra Feist, DFL-New Brighton, was the bill's chief author in the Minnesota House. Sen. Steve Cwodzinski, a retired teacher and DFLer from Eden Prairie, championed the measure in Minnesota Senate.
But the most powerful advocates for it came from outside the State Capitol. Young Minnesotans reached out to Feist about this issue. After Feist introduced it, these students testified on its behalf as the legislation made its way through various committees. Among them was Elif Ozturk of Golden Valley, who is now 18 and will attend Columbia University this fall.
In an interview, Ozturk told an editorial writer she got involved after seeing other students struggle to afford these products in junior high. She spoke to counselors and was told that some students had to leave class or couldn't attend because they lacked pads or tampons. Ozturk dug into the issue and discovered that other states had taken steps to help students' access these products. She thought Minnesota should do the same.
"If we don't talk about it, it'll never be fixed. These people who are in power, predominantly old men, have no clue what young girls go through every single day," Ozturk said.
Other advocates for the law's passage: school nurses, who testified movingly about how students struggle to afford these products and the educational and emotional consequences when they can't.
A specific but ill-informed attack on the new Minnesota law is in dire need of a reality check. Critics contend, wrongly, that it mandates menstrual products in boys' bathrooms. This has unfortunately been used to stoke ongoing culture wars over transgender individuals.
But the law's actual language provides considerable flexibility for school districts to implement it, according to Deb Henton, the executive director of the Minnesota Association of School Administrators.
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. Henton, in an interview, lauded the "local control" the law provides for implementation, and said she's fielded no concerns about its rollout.
At Anoka-Hennepin, the state's largest school district, the free products are not found in traditional male-only bathrooms, a spokesman said. But they are provided for free to all in "nongendered bathrooms," girls' bathrooms or from health staffers.
There's nothing radical about Minnesota's new law. Instead it's a smart, low-cost measure to address educational achievement gaps, one that many states are embracing. Weaponizing this measure is laughably out of touch and likely to backfire not only with women, but all who care about them.
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same old same old
Just like the Olympics and the woman boxer.
Refusal to admit the truth.
It's time to put a plug in this story.
We may have bled it dry.
no need to rag on and on about this, for if one has a cycle of the menstrual style, and it won't start, sometimes it is required to tamp on the carburetor before pulling the pull start string, as nothing to sneeze at, but if you do, be sure to have napkins handy, and you might as well have some Midol to ease the cramps gramps,
cause so Trumponian un advanced Vance is whence he poses the prance where as Trump and his cult chores add Vance cause inn reverse for the preverse where they only lie when sitting up in bed, and if Tampon Timmy is watt herd said, they'll be rolling with it till this clown gets his over the mountain due sentence, and won't end without an exclamation point behind this 'PERIOD" !
LOL.
Your note put me in a good mood and got me think that I haven't played some of my old music popular in A Mighty Wind days. Just listened to IDA Red by that great large ensemble group, The New Christy Menstrals.
Why can't those young girls use a dead fish dish rag just like thar mamas did?
Here's another Minnesota media fact check that quotes the sponsor who makes it very clear what the intent was:
The statute is clear. See the other discussion for any doubts on that point. Any district that doesn't provide tampons in boys' bathrooms can get sued.
YOU INCLUDED 'that would include both boys, girls and gender-neutral bathrooms'
That's not in the statute
Yes it does................................it says ALL
Little boys don't menstruate
Just the ones here
4
THERE IS NO MENTION OF TAMPONS IN BOYS BATHROOMS
Wrong. All students means all students.
Well, if it depended on what the definition of 'is' is, then maybe it depends on the definition of 'all'.
Nope. No mention of tampons in boys bathrooms as Hallux states. Keep up. Gender neutral would include boys, perhaps that's what's confusing you.
What you are quoting is what Sean added, it's not in the statute.
'All' menstruating students'
So you are excluding transgenders who want to use the boy's room. How very, very non-discriminating of you....../s
Actually the statute is unclear and there is no mention of tampons in boy's bathrooms.
The whole thing made Walz look like what he is...a wack job progressive far left liberal, too extreme to be a heartbeat from the presidency.
But you can soon call him Vice President.
How so?