[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 162 (2016), Part 7]
[House]
[Pages 9565-9567]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




             JEANNE AND JULES MANFORD POST OFFICE BUILDING

  Mr. HURD of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass 
the bill (H.R. 2607) to designate the facility of the United States 
Postal Service located at 7802 37th Avenue in Jackson Heights, New 
York, as the ``Jeanne and Jules Manford Post Office Building''.
  The Clerk read the title of the bill.
  The text of the bill is as follows:

                               H.R. 2607

       Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
     the United States of America in Congress assembled,

     SECTION 1. JEANNE AND JULES MANFORD POST OFFICE BUILDING.

       (a) Designation.--The facility of the United States Postal 
     Service located at 7802 37th Avenue in Jackson Heights, New 
     York, shall be known and designated as the ``Jeanne and Jules 
     Manford Post Office Building''.
       (b) References.--Any reference in a law, map, regulation, 
     document, paper, or other record of the United States to the 
     facility referred to in subsection (a) shall be deemed to be 
     a reference to the ``Jeanne and Jules Manford Post Office 
     Building''.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from 
Texas (Mr. Hurd) and the gentlewoman from Michigan (Mrs. Lawrence) each 
will control 20 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Texas.


                             General Leave

  Mr. HURD of Texas. Mr. 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 bill under 
consideration.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from Texas?
  There was no objection.
  Mr. HURD of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may 
consume.
  I rise today in support of H.R. 2607, introduced by Representative 
Joseph Crowley of New York. The bill designates a post office in 
Jackson Heights, New York, as the Jeanne and Jules Manford Post Office 
Building.
  Jeanne and Jules Manford were activists in the community and loving 
parents. I look forward to hearing more about Mr. and Mrs. Manford from 
my colleague and the sponsor of this bill, Representative Crowley. For 
now, I urge Members to support this bill, and I reserve the balance of 
my time.
  Mrs. LAWRENCE. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself as much time as I may 
consume.
  Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to join my colleagues in the consideration 
of H.R. 2607, a bill to designate the facility of the United States 
Postal Service located in Jackson Heights, New York, as the Jeanne and 
Jules Manford Post Office Building.
  Parents of gay activist Morty Manford, Jeanne and Jules Manford 
quickly became activists themselves, following their son's beating at a 
Gay Activists Alliance demonstration in 1972. Morty had been kicked and 
beaten, yet police did not intercede on his behalf. Jeanne wrote a 
letter, published in the New York Post, highlighting her outrage and 
drawing public attention to violence being perpetrated against the LGBT 
community.
  A year later, in 1973, Jeanne and Jules Manford decided to organize a 
support group for parents of gay children. By the 1980s, their group 
was formally established as Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians 
and Gays. PFLAG is now an international group made up of over 200,000 
members advocating for support, understanding, and equal rights for 
gay, lesbian, transgender, and bisexual individuals.
  In 1993, almost a year after losing Morty to complications of AIDS, 
Jeanne Manford served as the grand marshal of the New York Gay Pride 
Parade. Following her death in 2013, Jeanne was awarded the Nation's 
second highest civilian award, the Presidential Citizens Medal, by 
President Barack Obama.
  Mr. Speaker, we should pass this bill to recognize Jeanne and Jules 
Manford's tireless devotion to the LGBT equal rights movement and their 
advocacy on its behalf.
  Mr. Speaker, it is also a very sad time in our history where we are 
witnessing, unfortunately, violence and hate being perpetrated on 
members of our country, the citizens and people who have identified 
themselves as gay or lesbian.
  Mr. Speaker, I urge the passage of H.R. 2607, and I reserve the 
balance of my time.
  Mr. HURD of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mrs. LAWRENCE. Mr. Speaker, I yield as much time as he may consume to 
my colleague from New York (Mr. Crowley).
  Mr. CROWLEY. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from Michigan for 
yielding me this time.

[[Page 9566]]

  Before I begin, I want to thank my colleague, Ranking Member 
Lawrence, for her support on the Interior Subcommittee as well as the 
full committee, Ranking Member Cummings and Chairman Chaffetz of the 
Oversight and Government Reform Committee for working with us to bring 
this bill to the floor.
  I am so pleased to have this chance to honor Jeanne and Jules Manford 
and their history of community engagement by naming the Jackson Heights 
Post Office, which is situated in Queens, New York, which is squarely 
in the middle of my congressional district.
  I also want to thank Suzanne Swan, Jeanne and Jules' daughter, and 
PFLAG for collaborating with me on this legislation as well.
  Mr. Speaker, the timing of this bill, as my colleague from Michigan 
just said, could not be a more opportune moment. It comes in the wake 
of last Sunday's terrible attack on the LGBT community in Orlando, an 
attack that was motivated by hate.
  We stand here today to honor two individuals who, when faced with a 
hateful act of violence themselves against their son, were inspired to 
start a movement couched in acceptance and support.
  Jeanne and Jules Manford were your typical middle class Queens, New 
Yorkers, who worked hard to make a better life for themselves, their 
families, and for their community. Jeanne was a public schoolteacher in 
Flushing, Queens. Jules was a dentist. The couple worked with a number 
of local community groups helping to make Queens a better place to 
live.
  And they raised two children, Suzanne and Morty, in whom they 
instilled the values of hard work, compassion, and public service. 
Morty was lucky to have two loving parents who accepted him for who he 
was at a time when the acceptance of LGBT people was, unfortunately, 
the exception rather than the rule.
  While a student at Columbia and Cardozo Law School and throughout his 
career, Morty stood up for the rights of the LGBT community and, like 
his parents, sought to make life better for those around him. He was 
one of those many present at the Stonewall riots in Greenwich Village 
in 1969, and he continued to organize protests in order to draw 
attention to issues affecting the LGBT community.
  Following one of those protests in April of 1972, Morty was severely 
beaten. In a trial following the beating, witnesses testified that they 
saw Morty thrown down an escalator and then kicked and stomped on. 
Thankfully, those injuries were not fatal. Morty did recover. But his 
parents, Jeanne and Jules, were galvanized to take their own actions to 
counter hate and to counter discrimination.
  The following June, in the Christopher Street Liberation Day Parade, 
the predecessor to New York's Pride Parade, Jeanne Manford carried a 
now-famous sign that read: ``Parents of Gays Unite in Support for Our 
Children.'' The image of Jeanne and her defiance and call to action in 
the face of bigotry and violence became a celebrated artifact in the 
history of the gay rights movement.
  This is an iconic photo in the gay rights movement. It shows the face 
of a proud mother who refuses to accept that her child should be 
mistreated because of who he is. More importantly, this picture, and 
this particular sign, document the inception of a new approach to 
achieving equality, an effort by parents and families to stand up for 
their LGBT children. In that moment, now 44 years, almost to this day, 
Jeanne embodied the spirit that has now come to guide a national 
organization known as PFLAG.
  In the wake of Morty Manford's harrowing beating, Jeanne and Jules 
realized that, even as LGBT people continue to fight for justice and 
acceptance, their work can be amplified through the support of their 
allies. And who better to be an ally than one's own supportive family?
  It was with this in mind that Jeanne and Jules founded an 
organization known as Parents of Gays. With their spirit of community 
involvement, Jeanne and Jules wanted to help others like them, friends 
and neighbors and colleagues, to help understand and support their LGBT 
children. They held their first support group meeting in 1973 in the 
Church of the Village, a uniquely accepting and progressive Methodist 
Church in Greenwich Village, and it is still active today.
  At a time when attitudes toward sexual orientation were only just 
beginning to change, the founding of an organization designed to bring 
in, educate, and support those closest to the LGBT individuals, their 
parents, was critical in advancing acceptance and equal rights.
  Over the next few years, similar organizations were started all 
around the country, and their representatives were finally brought 
together following the 1979 National March on Washington for Lesbian 
and Gay Rights. A couple of years later, following important work 
establishing themselves as the source of information and support, 
various chapters decided to launch a national organization called 
Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, now known as PFLAG. 
And from there, the organization's efforts took off.
  PFLAG began work on national policy issues, such as stopping the 
military from discharging lesbian servicemembers. And it worked to help 
establish hundreds of chapters in rural communities where LGBT 
individuals and their families had a more difficult time finding and 
coordinating with others like them. Today, PFLAG counts over 350 
chapters and more than 200,000 members in all 50 States, and similar 
organizations have been established around the world.
  Jeanne and Jules continued to work in their community, helping to 
found a PFLAG chapter in Queens, alongside the LGBT equal rights 
activist and my good friend, Danny Dromm, now a member of the New York 
City Council. Jeanne went on to become an advocate for people with HIV 
and AIDS, following Morty's death from the disease in 1992 at the young 
age of just 41.
  For her many years of work in support of the LGBT community, Jeanne 
was honored as the first Grand Marshal of the Queens Pride Parade, 
which began in 1993, the year after Morty's death. The parade runs 
through the heart of my district in Queens and passes a reviewing stand 
situated directly in front of the post office we are renaming today in 
Jackson Heights. In fact, the street corner next to this post office 
was itself renamed for someone we lost to a senseless act of hate. 
Julio Rivera, a young man, was killed in 1990 at the age of 29, 
targeted because he, himself, was gay.
  Jackson Heights is a thriving neighborhood with a growing LGBT 
community, and our community will be honored to have our local post 
office bear the names of Jeanne and Jules Manford. These symbols remind 
us of how far we have come.
  After Jules Manford passed away, Jeanne, having lost her husband and 
son, eventually went to live with her daughter, Suzanne, in California.

                              {time}  1645

  In January of 2013, just a few months before the Supreme Court's 
landmark decision overturning the Defense of Marriage Act, Jeanne 
passed away at the age of 92. That same year, Jeanne was honored 
posthumously with the Presidential Citizens Medal for her efforts.
  It is difficult to imagine how we could have achieved so much 
progress toward attaining more equal rights for LGBT Americans without 
the work of Jeanne and Jules Manford more than 40 years ago.
  Though the LGBT community itself had already begun to organize and 
demand action, it was the Manfords' work to bring families and allies 
into the fold that helped push these issues to the fore.
  Many attribute the shift in public opinion on the issue of marriage 
equality to the simple fact that gay and lesbian people are able to be 
more open about who they are. As a result, more and more straight 
Americans know someone who is gay or lesbian or bisexual or transgender 
and want their friends and family to be treated equally.

[[Page 9567]]

  This is thanks, in no small part, to the supportive work of the PFLAG 
and its chapters throughout the years, and to the movement by parents 
and families who proudly choose to love their children for who they 
are. So as we celebrate Pride Month, I am glad we have this opportunity 
to reflect upon and honor those who helped get us to where we are 
today.
  As we mourn in the wake of the tragic shooting at the Pulse LGBT 
nightclub in Orlando last week, I hope we all can emulate the way 
Jeanne and Jules Manford responded to their son's beating. The Manfords 
recognized that violent acts of hate don't show strength. Far from it. 
They show weakness in the soul of the offender.
  Instead of recoiling in fear, the Manfords reacted with a sign of 
love, support, and solidarity. I have been heartened to see millions of 
Americans do the same over this past week. It has shown our strength as 
a society and as a nation in spite of an attack meant to shake us.
  So I am particularly glad that we are able to consider this 
legislation today to honor Jeanne and Jules Manford for all they have 
done for Queens, for New York, and for America, and I look forward to 
seeing this become law.
  Mr. Speaker, I want to thank all of you who are responsible for 
bringing this bill to the floor today for its consideration. I ask my 
colleagues to support this bill.
  Mrs. LAWRENCE. Mr. Speaker, as we close out the naming of our post 
offices, I want to take this time to just awaken this body and America 
on how the naming of post offices take the legacy of American citizens 
and allow us to celebrate them, remember them, and to create a sense of 
history in the communities where they live and serve.
  Just to sum up the post offices that we have named today: Mary E. 
McCoy, an activist for women and African Americans; Ed Pastor, who was 
a Congressman; Barry Miller, an emergency responder; Amelia Robinson, a 
civil rights activist; Michael Oxley, a Member of Congress; Kenneth 
Christy, a letter carrier; and Jeanne and Jules Manford, LGBT 
activists.
  Again, today, we have shown America that we recognize the service of 
those who on their own desire, will, and passion have served our 
country.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
  Mr. HURD of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I urge the adoption of this bill.
  I yield back the balance of my time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the 
gentleman from Texas (Mr. Hurd) that the House suspend the rules and 
pass the bill, H.R. 2607.
  The question was taken; and (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the 
rules were suspended and the bill was passed.
  A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.

                          ____________________