[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 83 (Tuesday, June 23, 1998)]
[House]
[Pages H5061-H5062]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    ENDING DISCRIMINATION IN AMERICA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from California (Ms. Pelosi) is recognized for 5 minutes.

[[Page H5062]]

  Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Speaker, since the House adjourned early today, I 
thought I would take the opportunity to come to the floor to speak, as 
others have done in other forums this week, about a most unfortunate 
episode that happened earlier this week.

                              {time}  2030

  In an interview on television, Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott 
spoke out about homosexuality in a way that I think maybe was 
unintentional by him, but, nonetheless, was very hurtful and harmful to 
people in the gay and lesbian community.
  I know that we are not supposed to be urging the Senate to take 
action on issues, but, without violating that rules of the House, I 
just want to put in context my own remarks, and that is that there is a 
confirmation of a nomination of an ambassador, James Hormel, which is 
hopefully going to come up before the Senate soon.
  This nomination was sent from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee 
to the full Senate, but Senator Lott has not taken up the issue. It was 
in the context of an interview about that, I believe, that Senator Lott 
made his unfortunate remarks about homosexuality, saying, ``It is a 
sin; it is just like alcohol or sex addiction or kleptomaniacs.'' Then 
our own Majority Leader, Mr. Armey, said that homosexuality ``. . . is 
a sin. I know it is. It is in the Bible,'' or words to that effect.
  One of the issues that is being raised about Jim Hormel's nomination 
is that he was seen laughing at a parade where there were people 
dressed as nuns. Without going into that, I just want to say that 
between my husband and me and our five children, we have over 100 
years, 100 years, of Catholic school education. This is a source of 
great pride to us and great strength to us. So we certainly have a 
great deal of respect for the clergy and the nuns who taught us and our 
children and would not want in any way for them to be demeaned, and I 
do not think that Jim Hormel has a demeaning bone in his body.
  Jim Hormel is a very distinguished leader in our community in the San 
Francisco Bay area. He is a philanthropist. He has been the Dean of the 
Law School at the University of Chicago before he came to San 
Francisco. As I said, he is a great philanthropist, a supporter of the 
arts and education, is very respected in the business community, is an 
astute businessman and is a very effective leader. He would make a 
great ambassador, and his nomination, I think, is a tribute to 
President Clinton, that he had the courage to name Jim Hormel as 
ambassador to Luxemburg.
  Jim Hormel, because he is gay, his nomination is being held up, and, 
as I say, unfortunately, the Leaders in the Senate and in the House 
have characterized his sexual orientation in a way that I think, as I 
say, is hopefully unintentionally, is most harmful to people in that 
community.
  When we were little people we used to say ``sticks and stones will 
break my bones, but names will never hurt me.'' But that really was not 
true then, and it is not true now. We have to be very careful about the 
power of words and the resonance that those words have as people repeat 
them and hear them.
  It is ironic that this all should happen at a time which is Gay Pride 
Week throughout the country. Speaking for my own area that I have the 
privilege of representing, we are blessed in our community with a large 
gay and lesbian population, and we will have a large parade on Sunday 
where people who take pride in their own situation as well as their 
friends will take pride with them, and I will be very honored to join 
that parade.
  I have never felt any bias from our own Majority Leader here, Mr. 
Armey, or Mr. Lott, our former colleague in the House and now the 
distinguished Majority Leader in the Senate, because of my support for 
gay and lesbian rights. I have never thought that Mr. Hormel had ever 
demeaned my religion or said something or did something objectionable 
to my religion, Catholicism, because he may have been amused, if that 
is even so, by people dressed as nuns. Nuns do not even dress as nuns. 
It is not the same as it used to be.
  But I think that it is time for us to have some reconciliation on 
this. We have to, and this will sound very San Francisco, I know, 
heighten the sensitivity of our colleagues to the hurt that it does to 
so many people in our country when they are demeaned by leaders of our 
country.
  Mr. Speaker, I do think this maybe will provide us with an 
opportunity to say, you know, let us turn down the flame on this issue. 
The Bible, if we are quoting the Bible, has told my children, my 
husband and me for our lifetimes, as did our parents, that we are all 
God's children. They did not say you are all God's children, depending 
on your sexual orientation. They said we are all God's children, and, 
as such, worthy of respect, and in every person there is a spark of 
divinity that is to be respected.
  It is that attitude toward people that I think drives many of us into 
the political arena to do God's work. I do not like to bring politics 
and religion together, but it is to respect what our religion teaches 
us for people, that we want everyone to have the same opportunities, 
whatever their color, their creed or their sexual orientation. 
Discrimination has no place in our country. Neither does 
characterization of people because they might be different from us have 
a place.
  So I come to the floor tonight not to criticize, but to reach out to 
the two majority leaders, in the hope that we can put a stop to these 
characterizations which, as I say again, and I will say for a third 
time, may be unintentional, but are, nonetheless, very painful to the 
people that are described by them.
  Jim Hormel is a great American. He is a patriotic American. He is 
somebody who would bring great honor to our country to represent us 
abroad. He has already accomplished a great deal just by his courage 
and by allowing his name to be put forth, and hopefully his nomination 
will culminate in his being the ambassador to Luxemburg. In any event, 
it will hopefully also achieve a reconciliation in our country about 
how we treat people, all people, all God's children. That is what the 
Bible told us.
  As a Catholic, again, I particularly take issue with the fact that 
some have said that Jim Hormel's nomination is offensive to Catholics 
by saying, as Jim Hormel's friend, one of the great joys of my life is 
to be his friend. I would only hope that his nomination accomplishes 
the ending of discrimination in our country against people, regardless 
of their sexual orientation.
  So in this Gay Pride Week, let us all take pride in each and every 
one of us, and particularly not make judgments about people for how 
they are not like us, but to respect them for what they are.

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