Pride Month

Floor Speech

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Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, as we celebrate Pride Month, I want to take a moment to acknowledge some of the trailblazers and pioneers in the LGBTQ+ community who have led the fight for equality.

Our Nation--and the world--has come a long way since the first Pride parade was organized more than half a century ago. But that progress didn't come about on its own. It demanded sacrifice, from activists like Marsha P. Johnson, who led the Stonewall Uprising in New York City, and leaders like Harvey Milk, who gave his life to advance LGBTQ+ equality. And it also demanded courage, courage that we see on display every day.

Just this week, a defensive lineman for the Las Vegas Raiders, Carl Nassib, became the first active NFL player to come out as gay. In a video he posted, Mr. Nassib said he hopes that ``one day videos like this and the whole coming-out process are just not necessary . . . but until then I'm going to do my best and my part to cultivate a culture that's accepting, that's compassionate.'' That is really what Pride Month is all about, joining together to embrace our friends and loved ones exactly as they are and cultivating a culture that is more accepting and compassionate.

Carl Nassib's announcement this week is yet another reminder of how far the movement for LGBTQ+ equality has come, in my lifetime and even during my time in Congress. The year I was elected to the U.S. Senate, Congress passed the Defense of Marriage Act, a shameful piece of legislation that outlawed same-sex marriage. But less than two decades later, the Supreme Court corrected that mistake by making marriage equality the law of the land. The sixth anniversary of that decision, Obergefell v. Hodges, is coming up this Saturday, the same day as Chicago's Pride in the Park festival in Grant Park. It is a remarkable trajectory, and it is one nobody could have predicted when I first entered Congress. It also begs the question: What progress will our Nation achieve over the next 20 years?

Earlier this year, as chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, I was honored to gavel in the Senate's first-ever hearing on the EQUALITY Act. It is a crucial piece of legislation that would strengthen civil rights protections for LGBTQ+ Americans and would explicitly prohibit discrimination in education, employment, housing, and other facets of everyday life. The EQUALITY Act has already passed the House, but it is currently languishing in this Chamber. Will we allow this Senate to once again stand as a bulwark against the tides of progress? Or will we join Carl Nassib--and others before him--in acting with courage?

This Pride Month, I hope we follow Mr. Nassib's lead, and I hope we do our part to cultivate a culture that embraces all of our Nation's children, exactly as who they are.

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