[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 131 (Wednesday, August 2, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4707-S4708]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                        Transgender Military Ban

  Mr. President, while focusing on the military, I want to shift to 
another aspect of military service, and I am going to start by thinking 
about the foundation of our country, our ``we the people'' Nation. ``We 
the People'' are the first three words of our Constitution, the mission 
statement of our Nation. We are not a nation that is founded of, by, 
and for the powerful, not a nation founded to govern of, by, and for 
the privileged, but for the people. It was a very deliberate strategy 
of our Founders not to repeat the type of structure in America that 
they saw in Europe, where government became beholden and in servitude 
to simply the powerful class.
  Throughout our history, we have strived to live up to this vision of 
a nation where every individual has the opportunity to thrive. Time 
after time, we have broken down barriers, we have overcome 
discrimination, and we have thrown open the doors of opportunity for 
one group after another--for women, for Africa Americans, for 
indigenous peoples, for immigrants, for the disabled.
  Freedom, said President Lyndon Baines Johnson, ``is the right to be 
treated, in every part of our national life, as a person equal in 
dignity and promise to all others.'' So we strive to reach that 
perspective, that point where our vision of the pursuit of happiness 
embraces freedom as Lyndon Baines Johnson described it--``the right to 
be treated, in every part of our national life, as a person equal in 
dignity and promise to all others.'' It has not been easy.
  It was Martin Luther King who saw how challenging it was to progress 
toward that vision, and he noted that ``human progress is neither 
automatic nor inevitable. . . . Every step towards the goal of justice 
requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle; the tireless exertions and 
passionate concern of dedicated individuals.'' And it is with that 
tireless exertion, that passionate concern, that dedication, that we 
have made progress time and time again.
  But last week, we did not make progress. Last week, we fell back from 
this vision of opportunity, the freedom to engage in our national life 
with the respect and promise accorded to all others. This step back 
came in the form of an attack by President Trump and Attorney General 
Sessions on our LGBTQ Americans. President Trump announced a ban on 
transgender Americans serving in the military, and Attorney General 
Sessions filed an amicus brief in Zarda v. Altitude Express arguing 
that discrimination is completely legal under the law, including the 
1964 Civil Rights Act.
  Well, let's talk for a moment about our members of the military who 
have joined a Volunteer military, who have gone through significant 
training--and I am not just referring to boot camp but the ongoing 
training in specialty after specialty--so they can operate that radar 
effectively that provides warning to an entire ship, or that 
communication device to make sure that patrol is where it is supposed 
to be and able to follow instructions in the field, or any of the 
hundreds of specialties within the military that these individuals step 
forward and gain training on. Each one of them is significant to the 
overall success of the entire unit. Well, that is something President 
Trump didn't understand last week when he attacked and said that he is 
going to throw our transgender individuals out of the military.
  What is important isn't whether you are gay or lesbian or 
transgender, it is whether you serve with your heart and soul and sinew 
the purpose of the security of the United States, and those individuals 
who do are respected within their units. They contribute to those 
units. The lives of each member depend on the success of the other team 
members. They are a team. And to reach in, in a cavalier fashion, as 
the President did, and say ``I am going to rip thousands of these team 
members out of their units'' is wrong in so many ways. It is 
disrespectful, of course, of those individuals and their dedicated 
service to our Nation. It is disrespectful and damaging to the units in 
which they serve and provide those various skills which they have 
worked so hard to acquire and which we have worked so hard to make sure 
they have the chance to acquire. And it certainly damages the security 
of the United States of America to eject individuals with those talents 
and that training from our military. Therefore, that should be 
reversed.

[[Page S4708]]

  By the way, it was done without consultation with our military 
leaders. A Commander in Chief proposing a policy through a tweet 
without consulting with the experts who have dedicated their lives to 
the national security of our Nation--that in and of itself is a real 
betrayal of responsibility.
  Attorney General Sessions filed an amicus brief in Zarda v. Altitude 
Express, and this brief says that title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights 
Act, which provides protection against discrimination based on race, 
color, religion, national origin, and sex, does not provide protection 
against discrimination in terms of one's LGBT status. By the way, that 
is the opposite of what court after court has ruled.
  What happened, one might ask, to the President Trump who, as 
Candidate Trump, said: ``Thank you to the LGBT community!'' As a 
candidate, he said: ``I will fight for you.'' What happened to the 
President who, after the attack on the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, said 
in a tweet: ``Will fight for you.'' This last week, the President did 
not fight for you in that community; instead, he attacked that 
community, and he apparently approved of Attorney General Sessions 
attacking that community.
  This is why we need the Equality Act. The Equality Act would clarify 
that when we say no discrimination on the basis of sex, that is broadly 
applying to one's status of who they are or whom they love.
  If we go back to President Johnson's presentation of the issue in 
America, where he said every individual--the matter of freedom is that 
you have the opportunity to be treated as having the same promise and 
be treated with the same respect as everyone else, that it is all about 
being able to thrive in the United States, or to put it quite simply, 
not having a door slammed in your face when you go to rent an 
apartment, not having a door slammed in your face when you go to a 
restaurant or a movie theater, not having a door slammed in your face 
when you seek to be part of a jury. That is what freedom is in this 
country. That is the freedom that Attorney General Sessions and 
President Trump are seeking to rip away from a sizable share of 
Americans, and that is simply wrong. That is why we need the Equality 
Act--to make sure that this is remedied. That is why we need the courts 
to stand up against discrimination on the basis of who you are and whom 
you love.

  It has been a week in which the President attacked and damaged our 
military and Attorney General Sessions attacked and betrayed and 
attempted to steal freedom from a vast swath of Americans. That is a 
very sad week on both counts, and we in this Chamber should stand up 
and say: That is not OK. We will fight for the security of the United 
States of America, and we will fight for opportunity for every single 
American.
  Thank you, Mr. President.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Cotton). The Senator from Missouri.