Celebrating Pride Month

Floor Speech

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Mr. AL GREEN of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding the time. I would like to thank the leadership for allowing the time. And, Mr. Speaker, I also want to thank my staff and the many members of the LGBT Caucus for helping us to produce H. Res. 772. This is the original LGBTQ Pride Month resolution, and I am very proud that persons have signed onto this resolution, so I want to thank all of the cosponsors, original cosponsors of the resolution.

I am grateful that the President of the United States has recognized Pride Month. President Obama has taken quantum leaps forward in helping us to realize this notion that all persons are created equal and endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, and among them, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. This is what Pride Month is really all about, these inalienable rights.

I am proud to align myself and proud to call myself an ally of the LGBT community. I am an ally of this community for many reasons. I would like to just share a few.

I have suffered invidious discrimination. I know what it is like to be decided as one who should stand in a different line. I know what it is like to be required to drink from the Colored water fountain. I know what it is like to be required to sit in a different area in a theater. I know what it is like to have to ride in a certain place on a bus.

I have felt the sting of invidious discrimination, and my history dictates that I stand against invidious discrimination in any form against whomever. My history requires that I be where I am when it comes to helping others who are being discriminated against.

So I am proud to have this resolution that we have presented, and I am proud to have presented it because there is still great work to be done. We still have 28 States that allow someone to be fired for being gay, lesbian, or bisexual. No one should be fired because of who you happen to be. Your performance should determine your position in a place of work.

Unfortunately, in our country, we still have people who will look at someone and conclude that that person should not work in a certain position.

Dr. King reminded us that it was the content of character that determines the worth of a people, not what they look like, not what you think they may have as a preference in life, the content of character.

People should be judged upon their merits. They should ascend on merits, and they should fail on demerits, not what they look like or what you think their preferences are.

Twenty-eight States still allow people to be fired based upon what someone thinks about their sexuality, or if they should happen to announce their sexuality. Thirty States still allow someone to be fired for being trans.

How people behave, as long as they are obeying the law, should not be a means by which you can fire them. People have every right to be themselves.

To all of those who are heterosexual, as am I, we should think about what it would be like for us to have to pretend to be something other than that we are. People ought not to have to pretend or hide their sexuality.

I was very proud to see ``Don't Ask, Don't Tell'' fall because people ought to be able to ask and to tell who they are and what their preferences are. This ought not be something that we ought to, somehow, impose upon people as a shame. People should be proud of what God has made them to be, and they ought to be able to share that with the world. All persons created equal, endowed by their Creator, with certain inalienable rights; that includes people who happen to be a part of the LGBTQ community.

We still have 28 States that don't include the protections for sexuality under housing discrimination laws; people just evicted because someone concludes something about their sexuality. You ought not be evicted because of discrimination related to your sexuality.

There was a time in this country when females could not vote, a time when they couldn't own land, a time when they had to have a husband to acquire certain status in this country. But we have gone beyond that.

We should get beyond this notion that people should not have fair and equality with reference to housing in the greatest country in the world. And I still say it is the greatest country in the world. I understand we have these problems, but I believe that people ought to receive housing based upon behavior, not based upon what you think of them.

We still have, in this country, 30 States that lack housing protections for being trans. Again, what people think of you should not determine where you will be housed.

I am proud that President Obama, as I indicated earlier, has helped us move forward in this area and in many other areas, because it was on his watch that the Supreme Court of the United States required that all States recognize same-sex marriages, and that they issue licenses to same-sex couples. This was a Supreme Court, but it was a Supreme Court that this President had an impact on.

I am proud that, under this President, we have had the downing of DOMA, the notion that you can discriminate against same-sex couples with their benefits. This President has helped us move forward in areas that were taboo prior to his watch, and I believe that President Obama is going to be rewarded by history for his efforts to ensure that all persons are created equal. I am very proud that the Supreme Court has taken other steps to make sure that equality exists among people.

But finally, as it relates to President Obama, let me just say that his latest effort to make sure that the military lives up to the standards that we believe should allow every person to serve in the capacity that they were born into is a remarkable one.

I think his appointing Eric Fanning as the first Secretary of the Army, a person who is openly gay, was probably one of the most significant things that he has done because this is a means by which people relate to the country. People who serve in the military are held in high esteem. People who work with the military are held in high esteem. People who serve as Secretaries are held in high esteem, and I thank the President for this very bold and courageous move.

So we are very proud to have this resolution on the floor recognizing Pride Month, and we do so because, in my opinion, every month ought to be Pride Month. We ought not have a single month that we do this. But until we can overcome some of these greater adversities that are yet to be dealt with, I think we have to continue to celebrate Pride Month.

I am honored to do this tonight with my colleague, and I thank the gentlewoman for the time. I want to assure the gentlewoman that H. Res. 772, the original LGBTQ Pride Month resolution, while it will not pass this Congress, I want to assure the gentlewoman that, in our lifetimes, this resolution will pass a Congress of the United States of America because the Congress of the United States of America is metamorphosing. It, too, is coming to realize that we have to recognize the words of the Declaration of Independence; that all persons doesn't mean all people of a certain gender; doesn't mean all persons of a certain hue; doesn't mean all persons who happen to be from a certain place. It literally means what it says; all persons are created equal, and that all people are endowed by the Creator with these inalienable rights, and that we must bring the LGBTQ community within the purview of all that others enjoy and take for granted as a matter of course.

I thank the gentlewoman for the time.

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