Equality Act

Floor Speech

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Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding. I am so proud that the gentleman is in the Chair, as well as others who will preside in the course of this historic debate today, Angie Craig being one of them.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the distinguished chairman of the Judiciary Committee for giving us this opportunity today to expand freedom in America.

I commend Congressman Cicilline for his extraordinary leadership, his courage, and his persistence in introducing this legislation that is so important to our country, and doing so with the support of the Congressional Black Caucus. To see him standing there with the rest of us, honored to join Congressman John Lewis on the day of announcement a while back, a year and a half, 2 years ago, and now in the majority for us to have the privilege to bring this legislation to the floor, I thank Congressman Cicilline for being a champion of equality in our country.

Again, I salute the Congressional Black Caucus, John Lewis, and so many others, including Mr. Cleaver, who will speak later today.

It is a deeply powerful moment to be on this floor to talk about this important legislation. What I would like to do is take the opportunity in the time that I will use to salute the countless activists, advocates, outside organizers, and mobilizers who have courageously demanded the full fairness and justice that are the rights of all Americans.

On this floor, many of us, including Mr. Hoyer, we all go way back when we sparred for funding for HIV and AIDS. We were successful not only because of our inside maneuvering but because of the outside mobilization.

We were successful in passing fully inclusive hate crime legislation. Barney Frank led the way for us inside, but the outside groups were mobilizing, mobilizing, mobilizing.

Under the leadership of President Barack Obama--and we salute him for it--we were able in the Congress in the majority to pass the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell, to put that into the dustbin of history. It was successful because of the activism of our outside groups and advocates.

Then, of course, the horrible Defense of Marriage Act, I don't know what marriages they were defending, but the Defense of Marriage Act that was proposed by some of our colleagues on the other side of the aisle, the Supreme Court gave us that answer about justice in our country.

Then there was the ending of the hateful ban on transgender military service.

For this Congress, this has been the scene where we have fought the fight on legislation, fought the fight to present the case in the court of public opinion and to bolster the case in the Supreme Court.

On this monumental day, my thoughts are with Phyllis Lyon and the late Del Martin, who shared their lives together for decades. They were mentors for civic engagement to many of us in San Francisco for decades. Some of that civic engagement related to LGBTQ rights. They were an inspiration, as I say, to many of us.

People say to me, ``It is easy for you to be for some of these things because you are from San Francisco. People are so tolerant there.'' I say, ``Tolerant? That is a condescending word to me. This is not about tolerance. This is about respect of the LGBTQ community. This is about taking pride.''

That is what we do today. For Phyllis and Del and other older LGBTQ couples, LGBTQ workers striving to provide for their families, for the young people, the LGBTQ youth, this is a transformative moment.

Fifty years after LGBTQ Americans took to the streets outside of New York's Stonewall Inn to fight against harassment and hate, we take pride in the progress we have forged together.

Our Founders, in their great wisdom, wrote in our beautiful preamble of the blessings of liberty, which were to be the birthright of all Americans.

To bring our Nation closer to the founding promise of liberty and justice for all, we today pass the Equality Act and finally fully end discrimination against LGBTQ Americans. LGBTQ people deserve full civil rights protection in the workforce and in every place, in education, housing, credit, jury duty service, and public accommodations. No one should be forced to lose his or her job, their home, or to live in fear because of who they are and whom they love.

This is personal. It is not just about policy. It is about people. Earlier this year I received a letter from a trans woman living in San Francisco who has faced threats, stalking, and harassment because of who she is.

She says in her communication:

The fear is very much there. All I want to do is live my life like anyone else. Please keep seeing me.

Today and for all days, we say to all of our friends: We see you, we support you, and we stand with you with pride.

We look forward to a swift, strong, successful, and, hopefully, strongly bipartisan bill today for equality. This is not just an act of Congress that we are taking for the LGBTQ progress to the community. This is progress for America.

Mr. Speaker, I urge an ``aye'' vote.

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