OFFICIALS LEGISLATION INTEREST GROUPS PUBLIC STATEMENTS COMMITTEES VETOES

Equality Act

Floor Speech

Date: May 17, 2019
Location: Washington, DC
Issues: Civil Liberties and Civil Rights Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity

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Mr. POCAN. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman from New York for yielding.

Madam Speaker, this is not about a red herring about men wanting to play in women's sports. Please.

This is about people like my husband, Phil, and I. We have been married for almost 13 years. We are a pretty boring married couple, probably not all that different than most people in Congress.

We try to sleep in a little on the weekends, we sometimes argue over what to watch on TV, and we cherish the limited time we have with our friends and family.

And we are really lucky, because we live in Wisconsin, the first State in the Nation to pass a gay and lesbian civil rights bill back in 1982, and it was signed by a Republican Governor, but that is not true for a majority of America.

If we pass the Equality Act, people like Phil and I can be free to love who we love, and we can live where we want to live, and we can work where we want to work without being fired or evicted simply because of who we are or who we love.

That is pretty simple, pretty normal, pretty American.

Today, we here in Congress can protect our LGBTQ constituents who want to live a life like Phil and mine, like yours, free of unfair prejudice and discrimination.

Madam Speaker, I hope that Members will do the right thing today and join me in supporting the Equality Act.

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