[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 118 (Friday, August 19, 1994)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: August 19, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
               ASIAN-AMERICAN AND LESBIAN/GAY COMMUNITIES

                                 ______


                           HON. NANCY PELOSI

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                        Friday, August 19, 1994

  Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Speaker, the Japanese American Citizens League met 
last week in Salt Lake City and voted to uphold a resolution supporting 
lesbian and gay rights. This historic meeting marks a milestone in 
coalition building between the Asian-American community and the lesbian 
and gay community. The success of the effort is largely due to the work 
of two of our most esteemed colleagues--Congressman Norman Mineta and 
Congressman Barney Frank.
  At the Salt Lake City convention, Congressman Mineta gave a 
compelling speech in support of the resolution. In that speech he 
recounted the leadership role played by Congressman Frank in passing 
the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, the decade-long struggle for redress 
by Japanese-Americans interned during the Second World War. Mineta 
recalled that when Frank become the chairman of the Subcommittee on 
Administrative Law, after years of futility with trying to move this 
legislation, he sought out Mineta--Mineta did not seek him out--to tell 
him that he would make redress his top priority.
  By the end of that Congress, the Civil Liberties Act was written into 
the laws of the country. A gay Member of Congress, with very few Asian-
American constituents, made redress his top priority. Now, a few years 
later, an Asian-American Member of Congress traveled to Salt Lake City 
to deliver a stirring speech in support of lesbian and gay rights. 
There should be nothing unusual about this when two champions of civil 
rights--Norman Mineta and Barney Frank--are involved. Both understand 
that human rights are an indivisible liberty, not subject to race, 
color, creed, or sexual orientation. And both understand that unity and 
coalition building amplifies the strength and power of each community's 
struggle for freedom and justice in America. As a Representative of a 
city with substantial gay and lesbian and Asian-American populations, I 
commend their work, their courage, and their commitment to the cause of 
civil rights for all Americans.

                          ____________________