[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 103 (Friday, July 12, 1996)]
[House]
[Page H7531]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        OMISSION FROM THE RECORD

  The following was inadvertently omitted from the Record of Thursday, 
July 11, 1996, at Page H7447.
  Mr. CANADY of Florida. Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my 
time.
  Mr. FRANK of Massachusetts. Mr. Chairman, I yield 2 minutes to the 
gentlewoman from California [Ms. Waters].
  Ms. WATERS. Mr. Chairman, I rise in strong opposition to the so-
called Defense of Marriage Act.
  As I listen to the dire predictions, the ``sky is falling'' rhetoric 
and hateful pronouncements, I am reminded of one of the greatest 
declarations in our Nation's history: We have nothing to fear but fear 
itself. We have nothing to fear, Mr. Chairman. Same-sex marriage is 
legal in no jurisdiction in the United States. We have nothing to fear.
  The Hawaii case, Bare versus Lewin decided 3 years ago and making its 
way through the appeals process, will not be finally resolved for some 
time. There is no crisis. We have nothing to fear. Eleven States have 
already invoked their unquestioned power and enacted laws, objected to 
same-sex marriage. There is no need for new laws. We really have 
nothing to fear.
  Loving, long-term relationships between men and women or between 
same-sex couples do not threaten our children, our families or our 
communities. On the contrary, stable relationships enhance society's 
ability to raise healthy, engaged, and productive citizens. There is no 
problem. We have nothing to fear but fear itself.
  Many Members of this Chamber are simply afraid to face the changes 
that are taking place in our society. We cannot run away from change, 
Mr. Chairman. We cannot embrace fear and scare tactics as society 
advances and evolves. We have a responsibility to represent all 
Americans, as Members of the House of Representatives. Let us not be 
guided by prejudice, ignorance, and fear. Let us not use a segment of 
our population to employ a political strategy for this election year. 
Let us act with compassion, strengthen vision.
  We have nothing to fear but fear, Mr. Chairman. Oppose this bill.
  Mr. FRANK of Massachusetts. Mr. Chairman, to close for our side, I 
yield my remaining time to the gentleman from Massachusetts [Mr. 
Studds], my friend and colleague.
  (Mr. STUDDS. asked and was given permission to revise and extend his 
remarks.)
  Mr. STUDDS. Mr. Chairman, somebody may wonder why I or my colleague 
from Massachusetts [Mr. Frank] have not taken greater personal umbrage 
at some of the remarks here. I was thinking a moment ago that there 
might even be grounds to request that someone's words be taken down 
because my relationship, that of the gentleman from Massachusetts and, 
I suspect, others in the House, was referred to, among other things, I 
believe, as perverse. Surely if we had used those terms in talking 
about anyone else around here, we would have been sat down in one heck 
of a hurry.
  I am not taking this personally, because I happen to be able, I hope, 
to put this in some context. I would ask those, anyone listening to 
this debate this hour of the morning, to listen carefully to the 
quality and the tone of the words over here and the quality of the tone 
of the words over here. I would also ask people to wonder how in God's 
name could a question like this be divided along partisan lines. There 
is nothing inherently partisan that I know of about sexual orientation. 
I do not believe that there is some kind of a misdivision of this 
question between the aisles, and yet there is a strange imbalance here 
in the debate and the tone and quality of the debate.
  I want to salute some of the folks who have spoken over here, the 
distinguished gentleman from Georgia. We have talked about this before. 
I marched, although he did not know it at the time, with him in 1963 in 
the city with Dr. King. I was about as far from Dr. King as I am from 
the gentleman from Georgia when he delivered that extraordinary speech.
  Two years later I marched, although the gentleman did not know it, 
behind him from Selma to Montgomery. A few years after that, when it 
was the first march for gay and lesbian rights in Washington in 1979, I 
was a Member of Congress too damn frightened to march for my own civil 
rights. Actually, I changed my jogging path so that I could come within 
view of the march. I thought that was very brave of me at the time.
  But what I know is, because I had heard people like the gentleman 
from Georgia and because I am of the generation, and there were many, 
who were inspired by Dr. King is that this is, as someone has said, the 
last unfinished chapter in the history of civil rights in this country, 
and I know how it is going to come out. I do not know if I am going to 
live to see the ending, but I know what the ending is going to be. 
There is, as the gentleman said before me change, there has always been 
change.
  As I observed earlier, the men who wrote the Constitution, to which 
we all swear our oath here, many of them owned slaves. Slavery was 
referred to specifically in the Constitution. People of color were 
property when this country was founded.

                          ____________________