Democratic vice presidential candidate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz embraces his son Gus Walz as his daughter Hope Walz looks on, after speaking on stage at the Democratic National Convention.
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Democratic vice presidential candidate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz embraces his son Gus Walz as his daughter Hope Walz looks on, after speaking on stage at the Democratic National Convention.
Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images
When Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz accepted the Democratic nomination for vice president, he spoke out for reproductive rights in personal terms.
In his speech, he described the struggle he and his wife went through to start a family:
“It took Gwen and I years. But we had access to fertility treatments. And when our daughter was born, we named her: Hope.”
But it was at the point, when he shouted out his family, that they stole the show.
“Hope, Gus and Gwen, you are my entire world, and I love you.”
As the applause rang out, the cameras panned to his 17-year-old son Gus Walz, who, with tears in his eyes, stood up, clapped loudly, pointed to the stage and appeared to repeatedly exclaim: “That’s my dad!”
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A public spotlight
That emotional moment was celebrated by some, though a handful of right-wing commentators mocked Gus Walz for crying.
Before the DNC, the Walz family made public that Gus has a non-verbal learning disorder, ADHD and an anxiety disorder, according to his family.
The family calls it his secret power, which makes him “brilliant” and “hyper-aware.” And that secret power – was now thrust into the spotlight too.
For parents of neurodivergent kids, like journalist and writer Tina Brown, it wasn’t just a heartwarming video clip. It was a reminder of her own son, Georgie, a 38-year-old man on the spectrum who still lives with her.
She spoke with NPR’s Juana Summers after writing about this topic for The New York Times.
“I just recognized immediately that he was one of what I call ‘ours,’ the community of people who are on the spectrum, or special needs, or whatever you want to call it, whose emotions are sometimes a little bit sort of overexpressed,” Brown told NPR.
“And there was something so sweet about it. It just reminded me of my son Georgie, and it sort of prompted me to write about that, about how for people like us to see Gus and see the love of his family towards him, it was very, very moving and it felt important.”
Recognition and self-awareness
Like the Walz family and Gus, Brown recognizes Georgie’s own idiosyncrasies as superpowers.
“He just can only tell the truth, so he has no ability to to have any of the social lies that sort of make the world go round,” Brown describes.
“For instance, one evening we were at a sort of fancy dinner in the Hamptons. And Georgie, at the end of the evening said to the host, ‘Thank you so much for that evening. I enjoyed it. It was fine, but unfortunately nobody spoke to me really. So it was pretty boring. Now the food was OK and I doubt that I’ll ever come again.’ And at the end of it, my husband shouted in the car, ‘I’ve never been more proud of you in my life, Georgie!'”
But of course, Brown says, this honesty can also pose social challenges to neurodivergent people in social and professional settings. She says that would make a parent who understands these struggles in the White House all the more valuable.
As for what policy issues she’d like to see addressed?
“I think jobs and a real push for people to hire people with special needs in jobs that they can do and which they absolutely are qualified to do. And secondly, a movement towards assisted living, because many of these people are perfectly able to live alone and in fact, they want to. But what they really need is an assisted living community,” Brown says.
“And that is completely not there. I mean, this kind of thing I’m talking about is something I think that should be a big movement in this country, because I think it would have many, many people who would be thrilled to have their kid in a place like that.”
This episode was produced by Karen Zamora and Brianna Scott. It was edited by Patrick Jarenwattananon and Courtney Dorning. Our executive producer is Sami Yenigun.
