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Floor Speech

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Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I am thrilled to join people across Washington State and across the country in recognizing Pride Month.

Pride is an opportunity every year for people across our country and across the world to mark the progress we have made and the work left to do and celebrate the LGBTQ community. It is a joyful, beautiful thing, and it stands in stark contrast to the bigotry some voices on the far right have been fanning.

It is impossible to watch a Pride parade today without seeing just how far we have come as a nation; and, unfortunately, it is also impossible to follow the news without seeing a reminder of how far we still have to go and how hard a bigoted minority of people is fighting to pull us back.

Some far-right provocateurs have been twisting the most basic mundane gestures of inclusion into so-called controversies through blatant distortions and demonization. I mean, imagine calling for an investigation into a private company because they just sent their product to a trans person with a massive online audience.

Imagine being outraged because a company cares about having a diverse, equitable, inclusive workplace.

Imagine getting worked up because of rainbow logos or a Pride sale or an adorable little rainbow baby onesie.

I have a news flash for everyone who is trying to act like companies selling their products to every community they can is something new or some new nefarious conspiracy. Get this: Gay and trans people drink beverages; they eat food; they buy things. And for suddenly everyone to be outraged over some cute baby clothes? You know what? LGBTQ have families, too. They are parents and aunts and uncles and grandparents. Where have you been?

They are queer; they are here; and they have been for years. Get used to it. They are not going anywhere.

And let's be clear: These attacks on the LGBTQ community are not just ridiculous, they are dangerous, because we are not just talking about a handful of far-right voices complaining about companies. There is a truly insidious and ugly effort to demonize and ostracize and erase the LGBTQ community and our trans friends, neighbors, and loved ones in particular.

Far-right lawmakers across our Nation and across different levels of government are spewing some of the most hateful rhetoric, peddling some of the most bigoted conspiracies, and passing some of the most hateful LGBTQ laws I have seen in a long while.

Over the past few years, these far-right politicians have taken books with LGBTQ characters off the shelves. They have demonized drag performers with dangerous rhetoric. They have investigated parents for helping their kids get the care they need and blocked kids from that care. It is extreme, cynical, and hateful to a degree that is even hard to believe.

Far-right legislators are happy to ignore the First Amendment to ban books and keep kids away from their entirely made-up danger of drag shows; but they are nowhere to be found when it comes to a serious discussion of the Second Amendment and protecting kids from gun violence--an actual public health threat and the leading cause of death for children in the United States.

One Republican Presidential candidate is shamelessly and falsely suggesting that trans kids participating in youth sports might be to blame for the teen mental health crisis and insidiously ignoring the reality that the same kids they are using as a political punching bag face some of the highest rates of depression and suicide of anyone.

Another Republican Presidential candidate championed a bill that is silencing and erasing LGBTQ kids and parents and teachers from schools by banning discussion about gender identity and sexual orientation and banning books with the slightest acknowledgment that LGBTQ people even exist. One school district in Florida even banned a kids' book about a penguin--a penguin--with two dads. Seriously?

Then there is the wave of laws we are seeing that are meant to cut kids off from age-appropriate, gender-affirming healthcare that they rely on, like the law that passed in Idaho, right across the border from my State, that criminalizes doctors for providing kids with gender-affirming care that they need--care that is overwhelmingly recommended by medical experts as safe and even lifesaving--or the vile effort to falsely accuse loving parents whose kids are getting this care they need as child abuse.

I said it before. It truly feels like far-right Republican lawmakers are in a race to the bottom in pursuit of the most extreme, hateful agenda they can think of. And their attacks have been especially cruel to the trans community and to trans kids.

There are real consequences to this hateful rhetoric. We know the trans community is more likely to face suicide and homelessness and violence, and yet far-right lawmakers are using their megaphone and their positions of power to bully kids.

That is what it comes down to. They are attacking people--attacking kids--for being different, for being themselves.

I said it last year on the Senate floor. I am here again because I still have to say it: We--we--all have a responsibility to stand up and make clear that this is not right. Trans people are our friends. They are our neighbors. They are our families. They deserve to be kids--just kids--to play sports and go to school and see a doctor and get healthcare. They should be able to get the same opportunities as any other kid to learn and grow and play and thrive, free from fear and discrimination. And parents deserve to be able to make their own parenting decisions with their medical providers to do what is best for their kids' health. They should not have to worry about what a right- wing politician thinks is best for their child, and they definitely should not live in fear that a State legislature is going to intervene in their parenting decisions and hurt their child.

We have got to push back against these attacks on trans kids every way we can--in the courts, with legislation, through Executive action, and by speaking out and speaking up--which is why I am here today, to tell everyone facing these hateful attacks: You are not alone. You have so many people in your community and in your corner.

I am proud to stand with these kids, their families, and the whole LGBTQ community. This Pride Month, we commit ourselves to making sure that these kids are not just safe in our country, not just welcome in our country, but allowed to be themselves here; allowed to be joyful and confident about who they are in every part of our country.

And in that spirit, I want to share some wisdom from Stella. She is a young trans activist in Washington State who spoke with me last year about the dangerous laws targeting trans communities.

I will quote her:

Opinions cannot stop us from existing. They cannot stop me from living my dream to the fullest and following all of my dreams . . . And opinions do not change who we are as transgender and nonbinary people.

I certainly am proud to be a voice for young people like Stella here in the United States Senate. Stella, I hope you are having a great Pride Month.

My message today to everyone who has been encouraging or complicit in the attacks on the LGBTQ community is simple: First, leave kids and families alone. You are not their doctor. You are not their parents. You have no idea what they are going through, what they have gone through, or what is best for them. It is not your say, and it is not your business.

Second: Be kind. Be kind. You do not have to bully people because they are different. You do not have to champion hatred and fear or anger. You can make a different choice. It is really not that hard to listen, to learn, to respect, and accept people for who they are, to have compassion. And I promise it will make your world brighter, and your heart will be lighter.

Finally, if you do continue down this dangerous path--bullying kids, erasing LGBTQ people, and demonizing them with dangerous rhetoric, I will rise against you every step of the way, and I will do so with pride.

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