[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 74 (Tuesday, May 6, 2008)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E822-E823]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




INTERNATIONAL GAY AND LESBIAN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION HONORS THE MEMORY 
                             OF TOM LANTOS

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. BARNEY FRANK

                            of massachusetts

                    in the house of representatives

                          Tuesday, May 6, 2008

  Mr. FRANK of Massachusetts. Madam speaker, on Monday, April 28th, the 
International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission, an organization 
that fights against prejudice based on sexual orientation and gender 
expression throughout the world, announced its posthumous recognition 
of our late colleague Tom Lantos for his extraordinary work on behalf 
of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender victims of bigotry. The 
IGLHRC awarded our late colleague its OUTSPOKEN Award, in recognition 
of ``the leadership of a global ally to gay, lesbian, bisexual, 
transgender and intersex community whose outspokenness . . . 
contributed substantially to advancing the rights and understanding of 
LGBTI people everywhere.''
  Madam Speaker, I know how well deserved this award is, because I 
frequently turned to our greatly respected and much missed friend for 
help in combating anti-LGBT prejudice whenever such matters came to my 
attention in various other countries. Much of the time when I came to 
him I found that he was already hard at work in trying to address the 
particular injustice because no one here did more to fight for fair 
treatment in this regard internationally. Drawing on his considerable 
prestige throughout the world, and his unmatched record as a fierce 
defender of human rights everywhere, Tom Lantos was an invaluable ally 
in our fight against prejudice.
  Madam Speaker, I ask in recognition of just one aspect of the 
extraordinary work of this extraordinary man with whom we had the 
pleasure and honor of serving be printed here.

                            [April 28, 2008]

            IGLHRC Honors The Late Representative Tom Lantos

       The International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission 
     (IGLHRC) announced today that it is presenting a posthumous 
     OUTSPOKEN Award to Representative Tom Lantos, the 14-term 
     Congressman who lost his life to cancer on February 11, 2008. 
     IGLHRC's OUTSPOKEN Award recognizes the leadership of a 
     global ally to the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and 
     intersex (LGBTI) community whose outspokenness has 
     contributed substantially to advancing the rights and 
     understanding of LGBTI people everywhere.
       ``We are so deeply grateful for Representative Lantos's 
     unwavering commitment to human rights,'' said Paula 
     Ettelbrick, IGLHRC's executive director. ``Throughout his 
     life, Representative Lantos waged a steadfast fight against 
     injustice. His voice, vision and compassion will be sorely 
     missed by all of us in the LGBTI community.''
       During his fourteen terms as a member of Congress, 
     Representative Lantos, who rose among the ranks to chair the 
     House Committee on Foreign Affairs, was a strong and 
     consistent voice for the rights of the disenfranchised. As 
     the founding co-chairman of the Congressional Human Rights 
     Caucus, Lantos used his prestige as an internationally 
     respected leader on human rights to hold the very first 
     congressional briefing about the global persecution of sexual 
     minorities. He was the author of the International Human 
     Rights Equality Resolution, which he introduced in the 106th 
     and 107th Congress, condemning human rights violations 
     against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people 
     throughout the world.
       Representative Lantos regularly challenged the abuses meted 
     out by individual countries to their LGBTI citizens. For 
     instance, along with key congressional colleagues, he 
     protested the arrests of allegedly gay men in the United Arab 
     Emirates, and the stoning to death of a Nigerian gay man. He 
     also asked Congress to ``withhold any support for a U.S.-
     Egypt Free Trade Agreement'' in light of the roundup, 
     conviction and re-conviction of reportedly gay Egyptian men, 
     and issued a strongly worded statement asking the Nigerian 
     Government to consider the implications of passing the Same-
     Sex Prohibition Act, which would have severely compromised 
     the rights of the LGBTI community in that country.
       Congressman Lantos was also a staunch ally of LGBTI 
     Americans. He opposed a Constitutional Amendment banning gay 
     marriage, worked to amend the Immigration and Nationality Act 
     to allow U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents to 
     sponsor their ``permanent partners'' for U.S. residency, and 
     introduced a bill, with Representative Baldwin, to extend 
     basic employment rights to same-sex partners of federal 
     employees. He campaigned for adoption rights and marriage 
     equality for gay and lesbian couples, and supported hate-
     crimes legislation and anti-discrimination protections in the 
     workplace. This is only a small part of his astounding legacy 
     of work in support of LGBTI rights.
       Born in Budapest in 1928, Congressman Lantos was the only 
     Holocaust survivor to serve in the United States Congress. He 
     was a teenager when the Nazi's invaded Hungary in 1944 and 
     started rounding up Jews. After being sent to a labor camp, 
     and escaping twice, he returned to Budapest where he joined 
     the resistance, lived in a safe house established by Swedish 
     diplomat Raoul Wallenberg and secretly distributed food to 
     other Jews in hiding. At the war's end, he discovered that 
     most of his own family had perished in the Nazi death camps. 
     Miraculously, he managed to locate his childhood

[[Page E823]]

     friend, Annette Tillemann, whom he later married. He first 
     came to the United States on an academic scholarship in 1947. 
     He earned a Master's Degree in economics from the University 
     of Washington in Seattle and a Ph.D. in economics from the 
     University of California at Berkeley, teaching economics at 
     San Francisco State University for several years before being 
     elected to Congress in 1980.
       ``Representative Lantos's legacy has meant so much to our 
     community,'' said Ettelbrick. ``We are truly grateful for his 
     unwavering commitment to human rights. We send our deepest 
     condolences to his wife and family, and are honored to pay 
     tribute to his extraordinary legacy on LGBTI rights by 
     posthumously presenting him with our OUTSPOKEN Award.''

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