(The Center Square) — Minnesota’s tourism arm spent $1,000 to produce an Instagram reel celebrating gay pride month that featured partial nudity.
“Explore Minnesota did not pay Instagram any money to run this video as an ad,” Senior Business Operations Manager Mike Meyer told The Center Square in an email. “Explore Minnesota paid $1000 for the production of the video.”
Explore Minnesota posted a publicly funded reel that the Twitter account Libs of TikTok shared. The website “Not the Bee” also wrote an article on it.
The video shows a collage of people dancing, performing in drag, and someone wearing only nipple tassels and shorts jumping on stage.
Under Gov. Tim Walz, Minnesota has become the “anti-Florida.” It seems Walz is ripping a page from the playbook of Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer to use abortion rights and LGBTQ rights as advertising to lure new residents.
In March, Walz signed an executive order protecting the right for Minnesotans to seek gender-affirming care.
“We want every Minnesotan to grow up feeling safe, valued, protected, celebrated, and free to exist as their authentic versions of themselves,” Walz said at that time. “Protecting and supporting access to gender affirming health care is essential to being a welcoming and supportive state.”
In April, the Democrat-dominated Minnesota Legislature approved a bill signed into law by the governor to establish Minnesota as a “trans refuge” state for people looking to switch genders.
The bill prohibits the enforcement of a court order from another state seeking to remove a child from Minnesota who traveled to receive gender-affirming care.
Scott McClallen
Scott McClallen is a staff writer covering Michigan and Minnesota for The Center Square. A graduate of Hillsdale College, his work has appeared on Forbes.com and FEE.org. Previously, he worked as a financial analyst at Pepsi.
