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[Pages S4028-S4029]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
PRIDE MONTH
Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I want to take a few minutes on the floor
today to celebrate the LGBTQIA+ community and their long march toward
equality, as well as talk a little bit about how the actions of this
President and his administration have threatened our hard-fought
progress.
As Pride Month comes to a close--a month that has seen communities of
every size, in every State, protesting against our Nation's long legacy
of police brutality and systemic racism, while also navigating impacts
of a global health pandemic.
I am reminded of the Black and Brown transgender women who 51 years
ago, stood against the bigotry and violence of the police after they
raided the Stonewall Inn and then sought to suppress 6 days of protest.
I am reminded of their courage and how their struggles mirror the
intersectional challenges people are facing today and the demands
ringing out from protesters in the streets.
I am reminded of Tony McDade, an unarmed Black transgender man killed
by police in Tallahassee in late May, and of Nina Pop, a transwoman
murdered in her Missouri apartment earlier in May--a fate that meets
countless Black transwomen and other transwomen of color.
Mr. President, a half century after Stonewall, I am reminded that
while we have made some critical progress, we are still fighting so
many of the same battles, and we still have so much, much more work to
do.
Thre is no denying President Trump and Vice President Pence have made
this work far more difficult. This administration's far-reaching
ideological agenda seems aimed at relegating LGBTQIA+ people to second-
class citizens.
Back in June of 2017, I sent a letter to President Trump outlining
the multitude of ways his actions in the first 100 days of his
administration had already threatened to cause harm to LGBTQIA+ people
in Washington State and around the Nation.
Three years later, it is sad but safe to say that President Trump has
built those threats into an all-out attack on members of the community,
from the administration's efforts to strip protections from LGBTQIA+
people seeking access to health care--during a public health emergency,
no less--to eliminating protections for Federal contractor and
subcontractor LGBTQIA + workers, to rolling back the Obama-era HUD
equal access rule, allowing shelters to discriminate against
transgender people now, and banning transgender servicemembers inour
military.
This is all in addition to this administration's proposed QUOTE
``faith-based'' rules that have allowed multiple federal agencies to
begin discriminating against LGTBQIA+ people seeking access to vital
taxpayer services and the parade of homophobic and transphobic judicial
and executive appointments that have been jammed through with the help
of Senate Republicans.
I unfortunately could go on because the list of offenses is long, but
let me
[[Page S4029]]
say, in closing: As a proud ally of the LGBTQIA+ community in
Washington State and across the country and as a voice for our State
here in the Senate, I will never stop shining a spotlight on efforts
from President Trump or any President to discriminate against our
LGBTQIA+ loved ones, friends, neighbors, and coworkers, and I won't
stop fighting against hatred in our laws and standing up for what is
right, as well as encouraging others to make their voices heard, too,
as we work to help our Nation live up to its ideals of justice and
equality.
So, Mr. President, this may not be the celebratory Pride we expected
or one like we have ever seen before, but it is one we should take as
motivation and inspiration for the work ahead this June and in the
coming months and years.
Happy Pride, everyone.
____________________
