Gus, Hope and Gwen Walz, the two children and wife of vice presidential candidate Tim Walz, wept in joy the moment he entered the stage to accept the Democratic Party's nomination. But it was Gus' reaction to Walz talking about how he and Gwen conceived with fertility treatments that drew the most views on the internet.
"If you've never experienced the hell that is infertility, I guarantee you, you know somebody who has ... it took Gwen and I years, but we had access to fertility treatments, and when our daughter was born, we named her Hope," Walz said, as cameras panned to Hope making a heart sign with her fingers. "Hope, Gus and Gwen, you are my entire world, and I love you."
Gus, overcome with emotion, stood up and clapped with the rest of the cheering crowd, then pointed towards the stage and declared emphatically: "that's my dad!" Clips of Gus' reaction went viral, with clips bearing the hashtag #thatsmydad spreading rapidly across social media.
“You know you’ve done well as a parent when your kids are as proud of you as Gus and Hope are of Tim Walz,” Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., wrote on X.
Walz has long been open about his and Gwen's need for fertility treatments to overcome the "agony" of their fertility struggles, a personal issue for many couples that has become a flashpoint as its most common form, in-vitro fertilization (IVF), comes under risk of a ban in some states. A ruling by a conservative Alabama court in February determined that frozen embryos were people and anyone who destroyed them would be held liable, drawing criticism from activists who noted that during IVF treatment, multiple embryos would be created and kept in reserve to give the patient the best chance of becoming pregnant.
The ruling could have a chilling effect on IVF, as doctors and health care clinics worry about being sued should they dispose of the remaining embryos or inadvertently destroy one during treatment. When Senate Democrats proposed legislation that would grant women nationwide a right to IVF, Republicans in the chamber blocked its passage.
Walz's children were conceived by a related treatment called intrauterine insemination (IUI), in which a partner's or donor's sperm is placed in the patient's uterus at the time of ovulation. That treatment is typically attempted before resorting to IVF, where the egg and sperm are combined outside and then placed back into the uterus.
Hope and Gus have been featured as a point of pride for Walz for much of his political career. Last year, Walz shared a video of him and Hope's adventures at a state fair, including an extreme ride the would-be VP nominee was "tricked" into getting on and a disagreement over whether turkey counts as meat or not. A few months later, he shared a photo of him and his son in a car shortly after Gus passed his driver's exam, captioning it with "proud dad moment."
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