Date: 2016-06-14
Speaker: AL GREEN (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: Texas

Mr. Speaker. I am so honored tonight to mention again that this is a resolution that we have on the floor. H. Res. 772. This is the LGBTQ Pride Month legislation. and I am honored that it is on this day. which is Flag Day. because the flag speaks to liberty and justice for allnot liberty and justice for some. not liberty and justice for some of a certain hue. not liberty and justice for some of a certain religion. but. rather. liberty and justice for all. regardless of your race. your creed. your color. your sexuality. liberty and justice for all. regardless of your religious affiliationliberty and justice for all. I assure you that the American people expect no less than what we pledge allegiance to. the flag of the United States of America. So I am honored tonight that we have this resolution. This resolution is one that speaks to the accomplishments and the successes of the LGBTQ community. And there are accomplishments and successes that we should mention. notwithstanding the circumstance that we are. unfortunately. having to deal with at this time. There are these accomplishments and these successes. Let me just name a few of them as we move along. First. I would like to mention the passage of the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act. a significant piece of legislation. a great success for America. However. the beneficiaries are persons who are discriminated against. who are harmed because of who they are. People do that in this country. We have people who will hurt you and take your life. as has been evidenced recently. because of who you are. This Congress took action and passed this law to say that. if you do this. whatever the punishment was. we will enhance it. We will make this punishment greater because you ought not target people because of who they are. Someone would say. well. why would we want to enhance the punishment for this reason? Here is the response. Here is the retort. Because we do it if you are a person in a blue uniform. You hurt a peace officer in the State of Texas. because he or she is a peace officer. your punishment is going to be enhanced. There is nothing wrong with that. I celebrate that. That is why I celebrate the passage of this piece of legislation. the Matthew Shepherd and James Byrd Hate Crime Prevention Act. This is an accomplishment that the LGBTQ community as well as other communities and all should celebrate. Of course. there is Dont Ask. Dont Tell. Can you imagine. as a heterosexual person. having to hide who you are every day of your life. having to be incognito in a sense. under an assumed identity. cannot be authentic. cannot be yourself? Can you imagine what that would be like? Thats what Dont Ask. Dont Tell was all about. asking people to hide your identity. Dont tell anybody who you are. And if you dont tell anybody who you are. we will let you die for the country. We will let you go into harms way and die as long as you wont tell people who you are. And I thank President Obama. When we eliminated Dont Ask. Dont Tell. we liberated a lot of people. One in particular that I am sure felt liberation was the Honorable Eric Fanning. because he now is the first openly gay Secretary of the Army. Can you imagine how many persons with talents that could have benefited our country were overlooked as a result of Dont Ask. Dont Tell? Some people refused to participate in that kind of system. So I am proud that this country has stepped away from this. because every person ought to be allowed to be himself or herself. Every person was created by the same Creator. We know the Creator by many names. but by any name. the Creator is the one that created all that is and ever shall be. And each one of us is a creation of the Creator of the universe. and we all should be proud of who we are because we all owe allegiance to the same Creator. I am proud to announce that 2012 was the first year that all 50 States had at least one LGBTQ elected official. I remember many years ago. as an African American. how proud I was when I could read annually that we had persons who were getting elected across the country to various positions who were of African ancestry. I was so proud that they were getting elected because I knew that we were making progress. I knew that there was a certain amount of acceptance taking place. This is what is happening with the LGBTQ community by having elected officials in all 50 States who can say "I am proud to be who I am." who can be authentic. This is what America is all about. liberty and justice for all. pledge of allegiance to the flag. Flag Day. That is what this is all about: this country honoring who you are. letting you succeed on your merits and fail on your demerits. not based upon who you are. Unfortunately. I will tell you this. there are still some places in this country where members of the LGBTQ community are discriminated against openly and notoriously. Twentyeight States still allow someone to be fired for being gayfor that alone. Show up and tell. show up and dont pretend. show up with a friend. and you could be fired in 28 States in this country. I think that. among all of the legislation that we talk about. this is something that the Congress ought to address. No one should be fired because of who you are. because of what God has made you. You ought not be fired for that. In 30 States. you can be fired for being a transgender person. In 28 States. you dont have protections for sexuality under housing discrimination laws. meaning. if someone believes or concludes or has evidence that you are a part of the LGBTQ community. then you can be discriminated against in housing. Is that the way a great country that I love. that has the notion of liberty and justice for all in the pledge of allegiance behaves? Do we allow this to continue? America stands for justice. stands for liberty. and it stands for it for all. It is time for us to extend all of the liberty and justice that I and others might have to the members of the LGBTQ community. I am an ally of this community. and because I am an ally. I am proud that the Supreme Court decided that marriage between samesex couples should take place. The Constitution of the United States of America was not written for heterosexuals only. The 14th Amendment applies to people. not to sexuality. The 14th Amendment and the Constitution is something that is precious for all of us. and the Supreme Court has so said that these marriages between couples of the same sex have to be recognized and the licenses have to be issued. This is what allies of the LGBTQ community will call to the attention of persons on occasions such as this. I am also proud to tell you that we who are allies of the LGBTQ community are of the opinion that we can make some of these changes. We know that we can make these changes because we have done so before. We have passed legislation after horrific events in this country. Because we have done it before. we can do it again. because we did it with the Civil Rights Act of 1968. It took us 7 days in the Congress of the United States of America to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1968 after the assassination of Dr. King. We had 49 people assassinated in Orlando. Florida. Something can be done. People. some would say: Well. what can be done? That is what we can debate on the floor of the Congress. Lets debate it. Rather than conclude that whatever is said is wrong and you dont deserve a hearing because what you have said is wrong. lets debate it. We have bills to come before this Congress that we vote up and down on a daily basis. We vote them up or we vote them down. Why not have regular order apply to hate crime legislation? Why not have regular order apply to gun safety legislation? Not gun controlI dont buy into that terminologygun safety. But if you think otherwise. then come to the floor. stand in the well. and state your position so that all can hear. [ 1815 The Gun Control Act of 1968 passed after the assassinations of President Kennedy. Dr. King. and Robert Kennedy. That legislation. I am sure. could have passed at other times. but it didnt. It was after a horrific act. or horrific acts. that it passed. I think that these lives were important. But the lives of the 49 people who died at Orlando are just as important as these lives that I call to your attention. Every life is precious. We should not allow ourselves to wait until it happens to be somebody that we perceive as being somebody. We ought not have to wait until someone who happens to hold public trust is harmed before we decide we are going to do something. Every person who is in this country is under the protection of the Constitution of the United States of America. We can debate our issues. but we ought to at least bring them to the floor and lets have a vote on them. I will accept. by the way. the vote. I always do. But I dont accept the notion that you can never have a vote on something because someone else happens to think that it is not worthy of voting on. I think all opinions have some value. and I think whether bills are presented by the Democrats or the Republicans. they are bills that have merit and bills that ought to receive consideration. Let them go through regular order. Let them come to this floor. and lets debate them. Of course. the one that many people will remember is the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act of 1994. This was passed following the shooting of President Ronald Reagan. By the way. I am pleased that we passed all of these things. I believe that we did the right thing. Someone might argue that we could have passed this without the shooting of President Reagan. Thank God the person who attempted to assassinate him was not successful. I am so grateful that he was able to live and serve out his Presidency. But that shooting. that act alone. allowed this Congress to act. It is a known fact that you cannot have an act of Congress if you dont have a Congress willing to act. I am grateful that the Congress was willing to act after the shooting of a President of the United States. So. because we have done it before. I am convinced that we can do it again. and I am convinced that we should do it again. I believe that this is a seminal moment in time. We have these seminal moments in timeseminal moments. moments that impact all time. Rosa Parks. when she took that seat. ignited a spark that started a human rightscivil rights movement. That was a seminal moment in time. But there were also people who helped her at that time. which is one of the reasons why we come to the floor tonight. because we are allies of the LGBTQ community. The African American community at that time had allies. We had people who were willing to stand up for us and stand up with us. When Rosa Parks went to jail. there were people who came to post her bond. The people who bailed Rosa Parks out of jail: Mr. Nixon was African American. but Mr. and Mrs. Durr were not. Mr. and Mrs. Durr were people of goodwill who understood that an injustice was taking place. In fact. Mr. Clifford Durr was a lawyer. and his wife was a noted person in the community. The people who posted the bail to get Rosa Parks out of jail were not all of African ancestry. So we all have a debt that we owe. I am grateful to Rosa Parks. I wouldnt be here but for the efforts of the Rosa Parks of the world. So I have to repay that debt. and tonight I stand here to give an additional down payment on the debt that I owe that allowed me to be a part of the Congress of the United States of America. There was the crossing of the Edmund Pettus Bridge on what was known as Bloody Sunday. Many people lost blood at the Edmund Pettus Bridge. If you havent been to the Edmund Pettus Bridge. I would invite you to go. Every person ought to see the Edmund Pettus Bridge. because if you can see the Edmund Pettus Bridge. you will understand the level of angst and consternation that persons marching forward had to have as they were going up. knowing that on the other side was the constabulary prepared to do whatever was necessary to force them to go back to their starting point and not to proceed with the march. Many of the people there with Congressman JOHN LEWIS. who said he thought he was going to die. were not African Americans. There were people of all hues at the Edmund Pettus Bridge there to see that justice was done. I owe a debt to the people who were willing to cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge on that fateful day. I come to the floor tonight because I understand that I owe this debt. I believe that we owe a debt to those who have made it possible for us to be here. regardless of our hue. And believe me. regardless as to who you are. you owe a debt too. It may be to Patrick Henry: "Give me liberty or give me death." It can be to any number of the Founding Fathers. But you owe a debt to people who made it possible for us to be here in the Congress of the United States of America and to have the liberties and freedoms that we have in this country. We ought to repay the debt so that we can pass on to others what has been passed on to us: a greater sense of freedom and a greater sense of belonging in the greatest country in the world. I am honored to tell you tonight that this resolution will not pass. I am honored to tell you this. that it will not pass this Congress. But I must be quite candid and tell you that we rarely pass any resolutions in Congress now. So I want to be fair to my friends who are in leadership to let them know that I respect the fact that any resolution. not just this one. would probably get the same results. But I do believe this: I am honored to tell you that it will pass some Congress. I hope I am here to see it pass. I hope I am here to cast my vote that will have it pass the Congress. that will give it a chance to be heard. and that will let people debate the issues of our time as they relate to this resolution. I hope I am here. But whether I am here or not. I believe that. at some point. we will look back through the vista of time. and we will reflect upon this time. We will ask ourselves: Who was there? Who was there to stand up for people other than themselves? I want the record to reflect that there were a good many people of goodwill who said to the LGBTQ community: You are not alone. You are not alone. We are with you. We will stand with you. and we will fight injustice with you. In the end. as Dr. King put it. "though the arc of the moral universe may be long"-the arc of the moral universe may be long-"it bends toward justice." We will bend the arc of the moral universe toward justice. There will be justice for the LGBTQ community. Mr. Speaker. in addition to the comments that I have given tonight. I have a statement that I will be submitting for the RECORD. a statement that speaks to the tragic circumstances that occurred in Orlando. Florida. I will be submitting this for the RECORD because I want the RECORD to show that I. along with many of my friends. took a stand. By the way. many of my friends who are taking a stand are Republicans. Many of my friends who are taking a stand are conservatives. and many of my friends who are taking a stand are persons of goodwill who happen to be Muslims. By the way. the Muslim community in Houston. Texas. took a stand at the iftar that I attended. The Honorable M. J. Khan. former city council member. was loud and clear. He explained that the Muslim community respects the LGBTQ community. supports that community. and wants to fight for the community to have justice. Also. I would add that Saeed Sheikh Muhammad was there. He too made similar commentary. So there are persons across the spectrum who are supporting the LGBTQ community. I respect all of these persons. and I appreciate them for what they are doing. I want my statement to reflect that there are those of us who came together and said to the LGBTQ community: You are not alone. Mr. Speaker. you have been more than generous. I greatly appreciate it. I want to thank my colleague who appeared. I want to thank the many colleagues who could not appear because of circumstances associated with an event that is taking place tonight. But I know that their hearts are here. and I know that they will do what they can at an appropriate time to make sure that the LGBTQ community understands and knows that the community is not alone. Mr. Speaker. I yield back the balance of my time.