[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

[[Page H5817]]

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.

                              {time}  2000

  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.

                          ____________________