[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 109 (Wednesday, June 23, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4725-S4726]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           LGBTQ PRIDE MONTH

  Mr. CARDIN. Mr. President, I rise in recognition of LGBTQ Pride Month 
of 2021. For more than 50 years, Pride Month has offered us a chance to 
celebrate lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer--LGBTQ--
Americans and to reflect upon the progress that our Nation has made in 
how we treat this community in law, policy, custom, and everyday life. 
It also is an opportunity to redouble our efforts to end enduring 
discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity.
  President Biden promptly issued a Presidential proclamation 
recognizing June of 2021 as Pride Month. With the authorization of 
Secretary of State Antony Blinken, U.S. diplomatic missions around the 
world are displaying the pride flag as a clear visual representation of 
American values. On the very first day of his administration, President 
Biden issued an executive order on preventing and combating 
discrimination based on gender identity or sexual orientation. This 
decision has already driven new policies at the agency level making an 
important difference in real people's lives, from protecting 
transgender individuals seeking safe shelter to reversing the

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Trump-era ban that prohibited transgender people from serving in the 
military. It is clear that LGBTQ Americans can count on the Biden-
Harris administration to do everything possible to champion fundamental 
human rights on their behalf.
  The bad news is that while we see progress at a Federal level, the 
Human Rights Campaign assesses that 2021 is the worst year in terms of 
State-level anti-LGBTQ legislation in recent history. Governors have 
signed 17 anti-LGBTQ bills into law, already exceeding the 15 anti-
LGBTQ laws passed in 2015, which held the previous record in recent 
history. There are even more bills waiting Governors' signatures or 
veto override votes. Most of these bills shamefully target transgender 
children. These bills and laws are untethered from trends in real 
public opinion. Recent polling from Gallup finds that support for same-
sex marriage is at a new high of 70 percent of all Americans. A PBS/
NPR/Marist poll published in April revealed that two-thirds of all 
Americans oppose legislation to ban transgender student athletes from 
joining sports teams that match their gender identity, a number that 
barely changes across partisan lines.
  The American people clearly agree with the principle expressed in 
President Biden's executive order: ``All persons should receive equal 
treatment under the law, no matter their gender identity or sexual 
orientation.'' It is as simple as that.
  When it comes to human rights, civil rights, and being treated with 
dignity and respect, everybody in this country, regardless of where 
they live, should receive equal treatment. The House of Representatives 
passed the Equality Act in February to prohibit discrimination based on 
sexual orientation and gender identity in education, employment, 
housing, credit, Federal jury service, public accommodations, and with 
regard to receiving Federal financial assistance. These protections 
build upon and align with the Supreme Court's landmark decision 1 year 
ago in Bostock vs. Clayton County, which affirmed that the sex 
discrimination prohibition in the Civil Rights Act of 1964 also applies 
to discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity. That 
ruling states, ``it is impossible to discriminate against a person for 
being homosexual or transgender without discriminating against that 
individual based on sex.'' We still urgently need to pass the Equality 
Act, however, to apply this interpretation to all areas of civil rights 
law and to apply protections against discrimination based on sex, 
sexual orientation, and gender identity to a broader scope of entities. 
I am proud to be an original cosponsor of the legislation and will work 
to advance it this Congress.
  As Harvey Milk said, ``It takes no compromise to give people their 
rights. It takes no money to respect the individual. It takes no 
political deal to give people freedom.'' This Pride Month, I urge my 
colleagues in the Senate to join me in supporting the Equality Act to 
ensure that we protect the human and civil rights all Americans. Our 
government should do all it can to promote equality, compassion, and 
empathy--not discrimination, bigotry, and hate.

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