[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 106 (Wednesday, June 22, 2022)]
[House]
[Pages H5812-H5817]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
CELEBRATING PRIDE MONTH
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Ms. Manning). Under the Speaker's announced
policy of January 4, 2021, the gentleman from Rhode Island (Mr.
Cicilline) is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority
leader.
General Leave
Mr. CICILLINE. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all
Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their
remarks and include extraneous material on the subject of my Special
Order.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from Rhode Island?
There was no objection.
Mr. CICILLINE. Madam Speaker, my colleagues and I are here today for
this Special Order hour to celebrate Pride Month.
Pride is a time of celebration of our community and its diversity. It
is a time to uplift LGBTQ+ people all across the country and honor our
identities and how these individuals have shaped our lives.
Pride is also a time of action. Fifty-three years ago, LGBTQ+ patrons
fought back against discrimination and police harassment at New York's
Stonewall Inn. Now, we need to harness that same strength and
determination to fight back against State legislatures' attacks against
our community, especially trans and nonbinary kids.
For every person able to celebrate Pride Month, there are others who
are struggling. There are countless people unable to come out because
of discrimination, harassment, and threats of violence. In too many
States, this discrimination is being led by elected officials.
Here in Congress, the Congressional LGBTQ+ Equality Caucus fights
every day so that all people, regardless of sexual identification or
gender identity, can live their lives openly and have every opportunity
to be successful and to lead happy lives.
I am proud to have introduced the Equality Act, along with every
single member of the Democratic Caucus as cosponsors, to ensure that
LGBTQ+ people are protected from discrimination in key areas of life. I
also introduced the Global Respect Act to deny
[[Page H5813]]
visas to those who commit gross human rights abuses against members of
the LGBTQ+ community around the world.
Both of these bills passed the House with bipartisan support, and I
urge the Senate to quickly do the same and advance LGBTQ+ equality both
at home and abroad.
{time} 1915
As chair of the Equality Caucus, I will never stop fighting so that
all LGBTQ+ people, no matter where they live or how they identify, can
live their lives openly with the full protections of our Federal laws.
We have made important progress this Congress. In addition to passing
several LGBTQ+ bills through the House, two key caucus priority bills
have also become law: H.R. 49, to designate the Pulse nightclub as a
National Memorial, and S. 937, which included the Jabara-Heyer NO HATE
Act, which provides for grants to improve data collection of hate
crimes, including hate crimes motivated by sexual orientation or gender
identity, and grants for States to create hotlines to assist victims of
hate crimes.
I am so grateful we have a devoted ally to the LGBTQ+ community in
the White House who signed both of these bills into law. President
Biden has been a champion for our community. Just last week, he signed
an executive order advancing LGBTQI+ equality during Pride Month. This
executive order aligns with the goals of numerous bills introduced by
Equality Caucus members.
But we are not done fighting for LGBTQ+ equality. Later this week, we
will be voting on the LGBTQI+ Data Inclusion Act to ensure Federal
surveys collect information on the LGBTQI+ community. We know better
data leads to better policies, and this bill will ensure we have the
data we need to draft the best solutions to address the needs of our
community.
It has been an especially difficult year for our community,
particularly for transgender and nonbinary youth who are under attack
across the country.
Please know that the Congressional LGBTQ+ Equality Caucus and I will
never stop fighting for you. You deserve to live your lives openly,
free from discrimination or harassment, and to have every opportunity
to succeed as your non-LGBTQ+ peers.
This Pride Month, we all have to recommit to fighting for true
equality for all, every single person in our country, no matter where
they live, no matter their gender identity or sexual orientation.
I am so grateful to be joined today by several of my colleagues who
are helping to lead this fight for LGBTQ+ equality in the Halls of
Congress, and I look forward to hearing from them during this Special
Order hour.
I again extend a happy Pride to everyone.
Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr.
Moulton), a member of the Equality Caucus, a strong advocate for the
LGBTQ+ community, who took time out of a markup to be sure that he
could be a part of this Special Order. For that, we are incredibly
grateful.
Mr. MOULTON. Madam Speaker, I want to start by thanking my remarkable
colleague for his courageous leadership, truly courageous leadership,
on this and so many other issues for the House of Representatives.
I rise today to celebrate and honor the LGBTQ+ community during Pride
Month.
As we uplift this diverse and resilient community, I would like to
use my time to spotlight the unique challenges faced by two important
groups: LGBTQ+ youth and LGBTQ+ veterans.
Today, a growing contingent of the Republican Party is scapegoating
LGBTQ+ youth and veterans through ignorant rhetoric and irresponsible
policies. Their words and actions are worsening an already devastating
mental health crisis among these kids.
Being a teenager is hard enough. You are finding your place, figuring
out who you are and what you want to do. Now imagine waking up each day
and hearing the people who are supposed to be leaders tearing you down,
villainizing who you are, all for political gain.
This is unconscionable, and it has real-life consequences.
The Trevor Project estimates that more than 1.8 million LGBTQ+ young
people attempt or seriously consider suicide every year in the United
States.
Another group whose challenges we don't talk about enough are LGBTQ+
veterans, who experience higher rates of depression and more frequent
thoughts of suicide than others.
I served with gay and bisexual great Americans in the Marines. For
years under ``Don't Ask, Don't Tell,'' one of my very good friends,
Joe, kept the fact that he is gay hidden so that he could put his life
on the line for our country in Iraq.
Then when he got out of the Marines, he came out of the closet. But a
year after that, in 2007, he got recalled to Active Duty. All he had to
do to avoid another deployment was to pick up the phone and say two
words to the Department of Defense: ``I'm gay.'' But he didn't. He
didn't want anyone to go in his place. So he went back into the closet
so that he could go back to the war, putting his life on the line again
for another tour.
Joe, like so many others in his shoes, chose to serve our country.
Yet, simply because of who they are, these patriots have dealt with
unforgivable discrimination. For many LGBTQ+ vets, the mental health
impacts are lifelong.
The scope of this mental health crisis is broad. We have come a long
way, but we are facing a moment where that progress is at risk of
moving backward instead of forward.
On July 16, we will take one big step forward when the 988 mental
health emergencies hotline goes live.
Just like dialing 911 during a medical emergency, every single
American will now have access to another easy-to-remember number.
This is just the first step. It is my hope that in the future,
dialing 988 will give LGBTQ+ people the option to speak with someone
who is specially trained to address the unique challenges faced by this
community. LGBTQ+ Americans need to know that they can have access to
the mental health resources they need just by picking up the phone.
Because every American should know, in a time of crisis, you are not
alone.
Mr. CICILLINE. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for his very
powerful words and for being here tonight.
As Congressman Moulton was speaking, I was thinking of Congressman
Pappas, because Congressman Pappas has been a great champion for
veterans. He serves as a distinguished member of the Transportation and
Infrastructure Committee and the Veterans' Affairs Committee and in
that role has been an extraordinary national leader on veterans'
issues.
Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from New Hampshire (Mr.
Pappas), a co-chairman of the Equality Caucus and a champion for the
LGBTQ+ community.
Mr. PAPPAS. Madam Speaker, I thank Representative Cicilline for
organizing this Special Order hour.
I rise to mark Pride Month. Pride is an important opportunity for all
of us, regardless of our orientation, to come together and celebrate
our Nation's diversity and to keep striving to perfect this Union, to
make sure that there is truly freedom and equality for all.
As a gay person growing up in New Hampshire, it wasn't always easy
for me to see a path forward and to know that there would be a place
for me in my community. But I am really fortunate that my family and my
community welcomed me for who I am. I couldn't be more proud today to
be able to serve them in Congress and to continue this fight for
equality.
All people deserve to live their lives as their true selves, without
fear of harassment, discrimination, violence, or imprisonment. But we
know many LGBTQ+ Americans don't have the same legal protections that
are guaranteed to others. No one should be a second-class citizen in
this country, and they shouldn't be a second-class citizen anywhere in
the world just for being LGBTQ+. Unfortunately, we know that far too
many people face violence and persecution just for being who they are.
In Afghanistan today, LGBTQ+ people have been harassed, attacked, and
sexually assaulted due to their sexual orientation and gender identity.
I called for the State Department to allow LGBTQ+ Afghans to access
the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program to
[[Page H5814]]
help them ensure that they could find safety because of Taliban rule,
which we know now threatens LGBTQ+ individuals with the prospect of a
violent death.
Russia, which has banned same-sex marriage, recently shutdown the
country's main LGBTQ+ organization, and there are reports that Russia
plans to target the LGBTQ+ community in Ukraine during its invasion.
As we speak, we know Brittney Griner, who is an openly gay WNBA
player, remains wrongfully detained by Russian authorities.
It should concern us all that an American has been wrongfully
detained abroad in any circumstance, but that is made even more
troubling by the fact that Russia's laws don't accommodate and protect
the community. We have seen a recent uptick in vigilante violence
against LGBTQ+ individuals in that country.
In our own country, we still haven't yet banned the use of the so-
called ``gay panic'' or ``trans panic'' defenses in Federal court that
can be used to actually blame victims of violence for the violence that
is committed against them. I have introduced legislation in Congress to
ban these so-called defenses, and it is time to get it done. They
legitimize homophobia and transphobia that leads to violence against
LGBTQ+ people, and we must end their use.
We see too much homophobia and transphobia that has no place in
America today. Last year, in my home State of New Hampshire, a man was
punched in the face in downtown Manchester just for holding hands with
his boyfriend walking downtown. His assailant later told investigators
that he didn't approve of homosexuality. This happened in my community
in 2021.
Just last year, we saw transphobic attacks in the neighboring town of
Derry that caused a community event to have to be moved to a different
venue for safety reasons.
This is just not the New Hampshire way, it is not the American way,
and it shows that we have work to do at all levels to combat this.
I hope that people out there who fear for their safety know that
there are LGBTQ+ individuals who are fighting for them in the U.S.
House of Representatives and lots of policymakers who are allies
working to ensure that you can live your lives free of harassment,
discrimination, and violence.
We have got to pass the Equality Act to ensure that all Americans can
live free from discrimination and to send the unequivocal message that
every LGBTQ+ American and their families matter. Doing so will give
full legal protection to all Americans, regardless of who they are or
whom they love.
This legislation is crucial, and it is especially crucial as we see
what the Supreme Court is poised to do, on the verge of overturning
landmark precedent, and rolling back the fundamental right to privacy
in this country.
I know these challenges can seem daunting. We do feel that there is
an uneven march toward progress, where sometimes we take a couple steps
forward and then we see a step backward.
I remember my first speech on the floor of the New Hampshire House of
Representatives in my early twenties. We were fighting against a bill
that would have prevented New Hampshire from recognizing same-sex
marriages performed in Massachusetts. We were fighting against that
legislation. We lost the fight. We came up short.
But in just a matter of a few years, we saw civil unions and then
same-sex marriage approved legislatively, signed by our Governor into
law in New Hampshire, because those elected officials were reflecting
the will of the people and recognizing that the country is changing and
moving forward and that our laws need to catch up.
So Pride Month is a time to rededicate ourselves to a fight that we
still need to win. We move forward by promoting equality because it is
important to lift each other up. It is important to ensure that
everyone can live openly as their true self.
To everyone out there, no matter your sexual orientation, your gender
identity, your profession, or where you call home, you should be proud
of who you are. This is how we are going to continue to change this
country for the better and move forward and ensure that everyone is
included.
Mr. CICILLINE. Madam Speaker, I thank Congressman Pappas so much for
his powerful words and for his leadership and the example he has set.
Madam Speaker, I will now call on another co-chairman of the Equality
Caucus, an extraordinarily distinguished member of the Financial
Services Committee and Homeland Security Committee and someone who,
though he is very young, has, throughout his entire life, been a great
inspiration to young LGBTQ Americans and continues that great tradition
as a Member of Congress.
Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Torres).
Mr. TORRES of New York. Madam Speaker, I am proud to be a gay man in
Congress. I stand here as living proof that the long arc of history
bends toward LGBTQ equality.
I am the first Latino and Black LGBTQ Member of Congress, and I
proudly serve as vice chair of the Homeland Security Committee.
Back in the 1950s, President Eisenhower issued an executive order
declaring people like me to be a threat to homeland security. Out of
his executive order came the ``lavender scare,'' the systematic purge
of gay people from the ranks of Federal employment.
So the LGBTQ experience in America is as much about pain as it is
about pride. We have seen the lives and livelihoods of untold numbers
of people ravaged by homophobia.
I wish to speak about one of those people, Walter Jenkins, who served
honorably during the Johnson administration, in a time of national
turmoil, only to have his brilliant career cut short by homophobia.
On October 15, 1964, a columnist named William White wrote a tribute
to Mr. Jenkins. It was so poignantly and eloquently written that it
bears reading on the House floor, and so read it, I will.
{time} 1930
The title is, ``A Graveyard Marked Despair.''
A human tragedy of measureless pathos, a tragedy to tear
the heart as few things have ever done in my 50-odd years of
rather urgent living is the story of Walter Jenkins.
It is too early to say what effects there may be from
Jenkins' resignation, as one of the special White House
assistants, in dreadful circumstances involving his arrest on
disorderly conduct charges. Nor does this columnist now
concern himself in the slightest way with this question. When
one sees a friend bury a lost career, common humanity
requires at least a brief wait at a graveside marked despair
before reckoning up who else has gained or lost what.
The present purpose has nothing to do with partisanship or
even with politics in general. It is simply to stand as a
human being with Walter Jenkins, to make one man's testimony
to Walter Jenkins, in an hour for him and his wife and his
six children of a sorrow and horror that has come to few even
in the harsh profession to which he has given his life.
I have just come from the hospital room of Walter Jenkins.
It is a scene that will burn forever in the memory of one
whose own profession as a correspondent has caused him to see
much of human suffering--the death of so many in battle, the
death of hope for so many others.
Walter Jenkins I have known for 20 years. Walter Jenkins I
saluted in print when he became President Johnson's assistant
upon Mr. Johnson's accession to the White House after another
tragedy just short of 12 months ago. I said then of Walter
Jenkins that he was one of the most honorable, most
conscientious, and most truly moral men I ever knew. I repeat
the statement today--every word of it.
For the Walter Jenkins I now see in this time of trouble is
a Walter Jenkins broken at last under the terrible pressures
it has been my sad lot to observe in life. I do not know
precisely what in this shattered state he may have done or
not done. I have not asked him; and I do not intend to ask
him.
But this I do know if I have any human judgment at all:
Here is a man long suffering from combat fatigue as surely as
any man ever suffered in battle; and of that kind of combat
fatigue I have seen plenty, too. At the hospital I told this
to his doctor. The doctor replied softly, ``Yes, you are
right. Except that for this kind of combat fatigue, they give
no medals.''
When President Johnson came to power, in a frightened and
divided Nation, suffering the shock of the assassination of
John F. Kennedy, he put all his enormous heart and energies
into reuniting the Nation and keeping its ancient institution
going on, levelly and unafraid. So did Walter Jenkins to the
last extent of his own talents and his own strength.
It was not easy for any of the Johnson people. They had
their sophisticated sniping detractors--behind their backs
within the Democratic Party as well as in front of them among
their natural and proper Republican opposition. Jenkins
became, next to the
[[Page H5815]]
President himself, the chief whipping boy. Totally dedicated,
tolerant and forgiving beyond ready belief, he patiently
worked his 15-hour day, his 7-day week, while the biters
bit--and bit and bit--at him.
As month after month wore on, Jenkins developed a red and
frightening flush that told even a layman of a dangerously
high blood pressure. But, like the President, he never called
for either the medic or the chaplain, as they used to say in
the Army. There was work to be done--and for at least 15
years--long before the White House days--he had worked far
too hard.
Finally, he reached that point of utter physical and
nervous and emotional exhaustion which will at the end, break
any man of any size. So now he is broken. So now they say
this and that of him. But the actions--actual or only
alleged, true or trumped up--of men broken in battle are not
held against them by civilized men.
So, there is, at last, this to say. For 46 years Walter
Jenkins has lived a life of decency, of high public service,
of courage, of honor and devotion. If there has in fact been
a slip, it has not been from the real, the true, Walter
Jenkins. It has been from the shattered man--the man who has
known no rest but now must have rest to regain his true self.
Let he who wishes cast the first stone. But any man who
tries to make capital of this man's tragedy will forever
lessen himself in the eyes of a judgment that is infinitely
more important than a mere political judgment--the judgment
of decent humankind.
Mr. CICILLINE. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for his words and
for the example that he set.
Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Michigan (Ms.
Stevens), my friend, a member of the Equality Caucus, and an incredibly
strong advocate for the LGBTQ+ community, a cosponsor of the Equality
Act, and a cosponsor of every single piece of legislation that has come
to the floor of consequence to our community.
Ms. STEVENS. Madam Speaker, it is a profound honor to be the
Congresswoman from Oakland County standing here this evening with my
colleagues from the Equality Caucus recognizing and celebrating Pride
Month.
Gay rights. Nonbinary rights. Lesbian rights. Trans rights. Trans
students' rights. Bisexual rights.
You are seen. You are loved. And you belong.
We say rights because your rights are indeed human rights. Gay rights
are human rights and human rights are gay rights. And in the plight to
end discrimination, the words ring out that were spoken in the Michigan
State House chamber just recently by a self-proclaimed straight, White,
married, Christian, suburban mom, Mallory McMorrow, who declared very
loudly for the Nation to hear that hate won't win; that we will not
stand for those who do not seek to govern, who do not seek to tackle
gun violence, to marginalize already marginalized people.
We speak the words of the only openly gay State senator from
Michigan, Jeremy Moss, who rightly pointed out that it was not the
trans community that stormed the Capitol on January 6. Oh, no.
We celebrate our milestones in Michigan. We celebrate our significant
individuals who are making history today: My friend, Amanda Shelton,
running to be the first lesbian to serve on the Oakland County Circuit
Court, joining our first openly gay Oakland County Circuit judge, Jay
Cunningham.
We have Dana Nessel, our attorney general, the first openly gay
State-wide elected individual.
In my own office, we have John Martin as head of the LGBTQ Staff
Association, hailing from Grosse Pointe, serving in my office.
Pride Month is a proclamation. It is a self-affirmation. It is a
bolstering of our friends in the LGBTQ community, and it is a
bolstering of a movement we are still pushing for.
Yes, it is joy. Yes, it is love. Yes, it is the declaration that love
will be louder than your hate. We celebrate pride. I invite all of you
to join us in Michigan to do so because no pride event is bigger or
bolder than the place that I call home, whether we are marching in
Detroit or marching in Ferndale, where people are free to be
themselves.
Ferndale, Michigan, the home of affirmations, decades and decades of
LGBTQ rights, right here in Oakland County, Michigan. From Oakland
County to the Halls of Congress, I speak these words.
Harvey Milk reminds us: It takes no compromise to give people their
rights. It takes no money to respect the individual. It takes no money
to end political division and to give people freedom, and it certainly
takes no survey to remove repression.
It takes Pride Month to love louder. It takes Pride Month to remind
us how we will overcome. It takes Pride Month to remind and to push to
end harassment and discrimination that, yes, have seeped into the Halls
of the Congress; where on the Committee on Education and Labor, I had
to take a committee vote to vote ``no,'' because a colleague who I
serve with and vote with here said that if we are going to do mental
health on college campuses, we should strip the protections for the
LGBTQ community. That took place in the year 2022.
But our love is louder this Pride Month. Our love is certainly louder
and ringing, with my friend, Congressman Cicilline, through his great
leadership in Rhode Island to my friend, Chris Pappas in New Hampshire,
to my friend, Ritchie Torres from New York--history-makers in their own
right.
Troy Perry, the reverend: The Lord is my shepherd and he certainly
knows I am gay.
Together, we celebrate, we recognize, we overcome, and we continue in
the pursuit for gay rights in this country.
Mr. CICILLINE. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for her words
and her tremendous support of the LGBTQ+ community.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Green), my
friend, a member of the Equality Caucus, a strong and consistent
advocate for the LGBTQ+ community, the lead sponsor of the House
LGBTQIA+ Pride Month resolution for many, many years, and a great
champion for our community.
Mr. GREEN of Texas. Madam Speaker, I thank my friend and colleague,
Mr. Cicilline, for the opportunity.
Madam Speaker, I am a proud ally and member of the Congressional
LGBTQ+ Equality Caucus. Why? I will share with you a brief vignette.
When I was a much younger person, I had a friend whose name was Glen.
Glen was small in stature. He never bothered anybody. He was friendly,
gregarious; very much outgoing. I didn't understand Glen, but I had
friends who thought they understood him.
My friends, Mr. Cicilline, would pick on Glen. They called him queer.
They invited him to do things that were unacceptable. I never spoke up
for Glen. I saw him and left. I had the opportunity to take a stand for
justice and against hate.
My friend, Glen, has gone on to glory, and I have allowed his memory
to haunt me because of my failure to do what I could easily have done.
I am an ally because I have seen the behavior of people who disrespect
the humanity that every person merits by virtue of just being born.
That is all.
The Constitution recognizes my rights, recognizes your rights. It
doesn't grant us a right, and we didn't recognize Glen's rights.
As a result, I will probably do many things in life to try to make up
for my failure at a time when someone needed me and I could have been
there, and I wasn't.
{time} 1945
So to my friend Glen, I have introduced the LGBTQIA+ Pride Month
Resolution. It encourages the celebration of the month of June as
LGBTQIA+ Pride Month, and it tracks the accomplishments and milestones
in the fight for LGBTQIA+ equality. It has 102 original cosponsors.
I have done more than this. I have introduced H.R. 166, the Fair
Lending for All Act. This piece of legislation passed the House
recently, by the way, as part of the Financial Services Racial Equity,
Inclusion, and Economic Justice Act. This piece of legislation would
clarify and extend antidiscrimination laws to include sexual
orientation and gender identity.
I thank the Honorable Maxine Waters for helping to bring this
legislation to the floor. In fact, but for her, it would not have been
to the floor for the vote that it received.
Here is the most significant aspect of the legislation. Not only does
it indicate that you can't discriminate based upon sexual orientation
or gender identity; it makes it a crime to do so--a crime to do so.
Some things bear repeating. It can serve as a mnemonic device. It makes
it a crime to do so.
[[Page H5816]]
If the banks are defrauded, you, as a citizen, can be fined up to $1
million. Nothing comparable to this exists if a person happens to have
a gender identity or sexual orientation that is unacceptable to a loan
officer, and the loan officer concludes that you are not worthy of a
loan that you are qualified for in all other ways. If this bill passes
the Senate, not only will it be a crime, but you will do time if you
are found guilty, and you will have to pay a fine.
There are some things that we ought not tolerate in life, and that is
invidious discrimination against anyone. We ought not tolerate it
because if you tolerate it, you perpetuate it.
To my friend Glen, I want you to know that I am still in the struggle
that you caused me to realize was more than just a bunch of guys having
fun playing pranks on another person.
Finally, I am not sure where this country is going because, in the
State of Texas, the Republican platform indicates that there are but
two gender identities: You are either a biological male, or you are a
biological female. This is in the Republican platform. I don't know
where we are going, but it is not in the right direction because you
are denying, by virtue of this kind of platform, the identity of
transgender people.
Who are you to tell other people who they are? You tried it with me.
When I was born, I was a Negro. It wasn't my decision. It wasn't my
mother's decision. You denied me of my cultural integrity. You are
still up to your old tricks, demeaning others to somehow conclude that
it is better for you.
I don't know where we are going, but we are going in the wrong
direction. We ought not let the State of Texas do this without some
rebuff, some indication that we won't tolerate it because it is but a
harbinger of things to come. This is the State of Texas where a lot of
unpleasant things are born.
The State of Texas also wants to repeal the Voting Rights Act of
1965. The State of Texas wants to secede from the Union. I understand
these things, but I don't understand denying a person's identity.
Madam Speaker, I thank Mr. Cicilline for the time. I am an ally, and
I am a friend you can count on. I will not allow myself to fail to
speak up ever again in life when it comes to injustice against anybody.
Dr. King was right: ``Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice
everywhere.''
Mr. CICILLINE. Madam Speaker, I thank Mr. Green, and I know Glen is
looking down very proud of your words tonight and the difference it is
going to make to those who are watching.
Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from North Carolina (Ms.
Manning), a very thoughtful member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, as
well as someone who serves on the Education and Labor Committee, a
member of the Equality Caucus, and a longtime champion of equality,
justice, women's reproductive healthcare, and so many issues important
to the LGBTQ+ community, and my friend.
Ms. MANNING. Madam Speaker, I thank Mr. Cicilline for holding this
Special Order. I am proud to rise to celebrate Pride Month.
This month, we honor the many contributions of the LGBTQ community
while recognizing that the fight for equality is ongoing.
I recently watched a documentary on PBS called ``The Lavender
Scare.'' I was amazed to learn how liberating military service during
World War II was for so many members of the LGBTQ community. The people
from small towns and rural areas were relieved to meet so many others
in the military who shared their feelings about sexuality and gender.
They realized that they were not alone, and they could be valuable
members of the war effort.
But then, when they returned home after V-E Day, they were confronted
with the Red Scare and the nightmare that was Senator Joe McCarthy, who
ruined many lives by calling on government officials to identify
homosexuals and remove them from their government jobs, claiming they
were vulnerable to blackmail by Communists and could be induced to
reveal national secrets. It is a shameful part of our history that I
never really knew about.
Thankfully, we have come a long way since the Lavender Scare and the
Stonewall riots of 53 years ago, including the recognition of marriage
equality in 2015, the enactment of landmark hate crime legislation, and
extending title IX protections to include LGBTQ students. We have made
progress toward equality, but there is much more work to be done.
We must remain vigilant in our fight to protect freedom of
expression, equal marriage rights, and the right to access gender-
affirming healthcare and healthcare free of discrimination. We also
need to continue the fight against discrimination in housing,
employment, public accommodations, and much more.
To every LGBTQ person who is concerned about what the future holds, I
will tell you this: I see you; I value you; I support you; and I will
continue to fight for you in Congress.
I believe that all Americans should be able to live their lives free
from discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity, and
I condemn all attempts to roll back hard-won progress.
As a member of the Equality Caucus, I have helped pass LGBTQ-related
bills, including two pieces of legislation that were recently signed
into law by President Biden.
The first of these new laws is the Jabara-Heyer NO HATE Act, which
improves data collection for hate crimes, including hate crimes
motivated by sexual orientation or gender identity. This law also
allows States to apply for grants to create hotlines to assist victims
of hate crimes.
The other law designates the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida, as
a national memorial, honoring those who lost their lives to the
senseless violence that took place on June 12, 2016.
I am proud to have cosponsored and voted in favor of H.R. 5, the
Equality Act, which bars discrimination in the workplace, housing, and
lending systems. I remember when we passed that that day, Mr. Cicilline
said to me: This bill will change lives.
For far too long, LGBTQ Americans have lived in fear of hate and
discrimination. The passage of the Equality Act is an important step
toward guaranteeing that every American has the fundamental right to
equality under the law.
The House passed the Equality Act last year. It is time for the
Senate to do the same.
I thank Mr. Cicilline for bringing us here tonight to recognize and
celebrate the LGBTQ community.
Mr. CICILLINE. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for her
beautiful words and for her great support for the LGBTQ community.
Madam Speaker, before I conclude tonight's Special Order hour, I want
to make some final comments.
We celebrate pride as a community and very often people think of
pride celebrations as joyous public events with lots of people
gathering. We just had a pride celebration in Providence last weekend.
The estimates were that over 100,000 people attended.
Part of the importance of pride is that it is a moment of great
visibility for our community. For too long, members of the LGBTQ+
community were taught to be ashamed of who they are, to hide their true
identity, sexual orientation, or gender identity. Pride was not only a
time to celebrate the importance of our community but to be visible--to
stop being invisible people but to be visible in the communities where
we live and work.
Over the years, we have had extraordinary leaders from our community
in business, medicine, politics, the arts, education, and all areas of
life.
We have nine members of the LGBTQ community serving right here in the
House and two in the United States Senate, examples of political
leadership all across the country so that young people can see
themselves in people who are accomplishing things in all areas of
life--in the law, politics, medicine, and education.
It is a time of celebration, but we have to acknowledge this year
that we are facing great challenges as a community. Particularly young
trans kids and nonbinary kids are living in States where the adults are
putting forth legislation that will make them invisible, that will
subject them to horrific discrimination, that will not recognize the
humanity of those young people.
It is a time of celebration. It is a time to take stock of all that
we have done. But it is also a time for action to remind ourselves and
the rest of the
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country that we demand to live in a country where we enjoy full legal
protections and we can live our lives free from discrimination of any
kind.
The good news is, overwhelmingly, a vast majority of the American
people support equality for LGBTQ people. They think discrimination is
wrong.
Equality is a founding value of this country. In every State in
America, a majority of voters believe that discrimination against LGBTQ
people is wrong because a cornerstone of who we are as Americas is that
we know discrimination is wrong.
It is only in the Republican Conference that we have to convince
people that discrimination against the LGBTQ community is wrong. It is
time for Congress and our Republican colleagues to catch up to the rest
of the country that understands that when you deprive a member of the
LGBTQ community of full equality, you not only hurt that individual but
you hurt the whole community because the community is deprived of all
that that person can accomplish and contribute.
That is the real harm of discrimination. It is not just to the
individual. It is to the whole community and to our whole country.
Madam Speaker, as we mark Pride Month, we not only celebrate, but we
also commit ourselves to make additional progress to continue in our
fight for full equality. The LGBTQ+ Equality Caucus here in the House
will continue to lead that fight in solidarity with all of our
colleagues.
I am proud to be part of a political party that fully supports LGBTQ
equality. When we introduced the Equality Act, it was cosponsored by
every single Democrat in the Caucus. Everyone wanted to be a partner in
this fight for full equality, and that is what the American people
expect.
Madam Speaker, I say to the young people out there who may be
struggling with their own sexual orientation, their own gender
identity, feeling alone, feeling like they don't belong, feeling like
they are not valued: I am standing on the floor of the House of
Representatives as the chair of the Equality Caucus to tell you that
you are valued. You are exactly how God created and expected you to be.
You are loved by your community and your family. You will continue to
be valued. You have people here in the Congress of the United States
who are fighting every single day to make sure you can live in a
country that will provide you with full protections and that you can
live a life free from discrimination of any kind.
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I hope that will be some comfort to know that you have a President
who said right from that rostrum, Madam Speaker, to the trans kids: I
have your back.
That was the President of the United States who is the most powerful
person on the planet saying to young people from our community he has
your back.
So that has to give us a lot of hope of what future Pride
celebrations will mean and the kind of country we live in. I thank all
my colleagues who participated in tonight's Special Order hour.
Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
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