June 26, 2020 - Issue: Vol. 166, No. 118 — Daily Edition116th Congress (2019 - 2020) - 2nd Session
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JUNE IS LGBTQ PRIDE MONTH; Congressional Record Vol. 166, No. 118
(House of Representatives - June 26, 2020)
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[Pages H2591-H2592] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov] JUNE IS LGBTQ PRIDE MONTH The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of January 3, 2019, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Green) is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader. Mr. GREEN of Texas. Madam Speaker, and still I rise. I am here for a special purpose, and I shall not deviate from the cause that has brought me to this podium tonight, but I do assure you there are things that have been said that at an appropriate time, I will respond to. Tonight, I rise to call to the attention of this House H. Res. 1014, Encouraging the celebration of the month of June as LGBTQ Pride Month. Madam Speaker, I want to thank the many original cosponsors of this resolution. There are 60. I would like to thank the Human Rights Campaign for the work that it has done to help us construct this resolution. I would like to thank the Center for Transgender Equality, the Equality Caucus, and Dignity Houston. I rise tonight because 51 years ago, the Stonewall riots in New York heralded in the beginning of the end of a shameful period in our history, because 51 years ago, Madam Speaker, in June 1969, police raided The Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in Greenwich Village, New York, causing a civil uprising and clashes between the police and thousands of protesters. Those historic events catalyzed a generation of activists who birthed a civil rights movement for LGBTQ equality. I rise tonight because I am an ally of the LGBTQ-plus community. I rise tonight because I didn't get here by myself. There were people of all stripes who made it possible for me to stand here in the House of Representatives. I rise tonight because 51 years ago being gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender was illegal in most States in this country. Another way of putting it is this: It was illegal to be who you were in this country. Fifty-one years ago, no Federal or State laws existed to secure the rights of lesbian and gay people to live openly in a relationship with their partner. Fifty-one years ago, no law precluded even the most overt discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. Fifty-one years ago, our legal system afforded LGBTQ-plus persons no protections under the law to live free from discrimination in employment, in housing, in finance, in education, or in healthcare. I rise tonight because 51 years ago, there were few openly gay politicians or public figures in this country. I am honored to say that the Honorable Barney Frank, whom I served with in Congress, has been and continues to be a part of this resolution. Each resolution that I have sponsored has honored the Honorable Barney Frank, a Member of Congress from 1981 to 2013, and recognized him as an honorary cosponsor of this resolution. I rise because 51 years ago, being openly gay was a finable offense, a crime, in many Federal agencies and a per se bar to obtaining a Federal security clearance. But today, thanks to the resolution and thanks to the revolution that began this month 51 years ago at Stonewall, I am proud to say that several openly gay persons serve proudly on my congressional staff. I am proud to have them, and I am proud of the work they do. Today, I am even more proud that as of last Monday, when the Supreme Court decided Bostock v. Clayton County, each member of my staff and all LGBTQ persons in the United States of America now enjoy the same legal protections against employment discrimination as all other persons without regard to sex, sexual orientation, or gender identity. In that historic 6-3 decision, the Bostock court resoundingly affirmed that the prohibitions of Title VII bar all discrimination in employment on the basis of sex, including sexual orientation or gender identity. Today, we recall the painful, bloody, and often deadly toll of the 51 formative years between Stonewall and Bostock. Today, we remember each LGBTQ-plus victim of discrimination, violence, and prejudice in the intervening years--51 years, I might add--who were shut out, subjugated, or even killed. Today, we mourn each one of the Black transgender women who have been murdered in this year alone. And today, with consideration of this Pride resolution, we continue the tradition that I began as an original sponsor of Congress' Pride Month resolution. I am proud of how far we have come as a Nation in our struggle for full LGBTQ-plus equality. And in this season of Pride, it is fitting to celebrate that remarkable hard-won progress. {time} 1830 But today, I also recognize that, although we have come a long way in 51 years, we still have far to go. Today, we must ensure that full inclusion for LGBTQ-plus persons does not take another 51 years or even 51 weeks. It is now time that we must complete the march toward full legal equality for all persons, without regard to sexual orientation or gender identity. Today, I call upon the Senate to take up and pass the Equality Act, H.R. 5, without further delay. I am proud to be the original sponsor of this resolution. I am grateful to all who have become original cosponsors. It is not too late for persons to cosponsor the resolution, and I would beg that persons would do so. So now, having finished my comments on the Pride Month resolution, I would like to step over to the next microphone. Valuing Order and Law Instead of Law and Order Mr. GREEN of Texas. Madam Speaker, I rise because now I must say it was most difficult to sit in this House and hear some of the comments made by my colleagues tonight. They seem to value statues above human life. All the vandalism and crimes that have been committed, I don't support that, and I don't think that the protesters who were out there peacefully protesting supported it either. I don't think you ought to paint all protesters with one brush, just as I don't paint all peace officers with one brush. I never conclude that all officers are bad, but those who are bad ought to be punished. I find it quite fascinating that my colleagues who came here and spoke so eloquently tonight, I haven't heard them on the floor in prior times talking about all of the atrocities being committed against people of color at the hands of the constabulary. I just question why is it that they don't come to the floor and stand up for people of color. I stand up for all people. It doesn't matter your color, your sex, your sexual orientation. I have been on this floor consistently doing this, but I don't see that from the other side. I see them here for what I call order and law, not law and order, and here is how that works: You have a President who goes before members of the police community, and he says to them: When you arrest a person, you don't have to be so nice. Now, he is talking about a person who is in the care, custody, and control of the police, and that person does not have to be treated so nice. He sent a message. That message was, you maintain order, do whatever you have got to do, and I will provide the law to support you. That is order and law. I support law and order. I have an uncle who was a deputy sheriff. He influenced my life. I am probably in Congress today because of words that he spoke to me, so I support policing. I understand the necessity to have persons who are going to assure us that we can be protected. But what I don't support is a belief that peaceful protesters are all somehow a part of a mob. You can peacefully protest and go to jail. I know; I have been there. I was there with the Honorable John Lewis. We were peacefully protesting, but we went to jail. Peaceful protesters go to jail. Peaceful protesters get in the way. Peaceful protesters disrupt. That is what protest [[Page H2592]] is about. If people don't get uncomfortable, then your protest has accomplished very little. Dr. King was in jail when he wrote the letter from the Birmingham jail. He was peacefully protesting, but he went to jail. It happens. That is a part of the protest movement. When I went out to protest, knowing that I would likely go to jail, I had somebody to post my bail. Peaceful protest does not mean that you are not disruptive. It means that you have a message that has to be heard. As Dr. King put it, protests can be the language of the unheard, peaceful protest especially. So I am here to say to my colleagues, I regret that you cannot see the hurt that is being felt by people of color. I don't understand why my tax dollars have to support a statue along some thoroughfare of Robert E Lee. You can have it. Take it to a museum. Tuck it away for whatever purposes you like. But you don't have to impose it upon me. We don't allow--or, more appropriately, Germany does not have statues of Hitler in the public squares. And I refuse to stand by and allow statues of people who wanted to keep my ancestors in chains, in slavery, which is a nice way of saying rape, murder, kidnapping, stripping babies from their parents, and sending the parents one way and the children another. It is too nice a word for what happened to my ancestors. So, I am not going to celebrate them. I have never celebrated them, and it is time to remove them. I am not going to go out and pull one over and push it off into some corner. But I don't see my colleagues helping with the means by which they can be removed, and you take them and put them wherever you would like to have them. I have no problem with your ownership of them, but don't expect me to celebrate them and have my tax dollars take care of them. There was one in my congressional district, a Confederate soldier named Dowling. It has been removed, and I am proud to know that was removed. So I rise now, as I close, to say just simply this: I love my country. I love my country. I love it because of many of the good things that have happened to me. But I also love it in spite of many of the things that were not appropriate that have occurred. And I will continue to love my country. But I refuse to accept symbols of racism and hate. I will never honor them, and I would badly have my colleagues take them to some other place out of the public square. Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time. ____________________
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