[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 4]
[House]
[Page 5072]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                     SUPPORTING THE DAY OF SILENCE

  (Mr. ENGEL asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. ENGEL. Madam Speaker, every year three-quarters of gay, lesbian, 
bisexual, and transgender kids in this country are verbally harassed at 
school. Nearly a fifth will be physically assaulted. It is time for the 
bullying and abuse to stop.
  Every year GLSEN organizes the National Day of Silence. This Friday, 
kids across the country will take a daylong vow of silence to draw 
attention to the abuse their LGBT friends and classmates have to deal 
with every day.
  Counseling and outreach have done a lot to help these kids, but 
change is not coming fast enough, so I am once again introducing a 
resolution supporting the Day of Silence. LGBT kids deserve to be able 
to go to school and feel safe. I invite my colleagues to join me and 
cosponsor the resolution.
  On another matter, yesterday is the 1-year anniversary that the 
Nigerian schoolgirls were kidnapped by the terror group Boko Haram. I 
am wearing these ribbons today to say ``Bring Back Our Girls,'' and I 
thank our colleague Frederica Wilson of Florida for being a champion on 
this issue.

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