Marriage Protection Amendment
MARRIAGE PROTECTION AMENDMENT
Ms. McCOLLUM of Minnesota. Mr. Speaker, once again this Republican led Congress is exercising an election year ploy with their attempt today to demonize gay and lesbian Americans. H.J. Res. 88 is an attempt to write hate and discrimination into our Nation's Constitution and disgracefully use this House to advance a cynical and cruel political agenda. While my Republican colleagues are actively working to transform the Constitution into a document of discrimination by passing H.J. Res. 88, the rest of America is concerned about very real and serious issues that this Congress is ignoring.
American families are concerned about real issues that affect their daily lives like the price of gasoline as it rises above $3 per gallon, the deteriorating situation in Iraq that is costing the American people the lives of their loved ones and $3 billion per week, and they are deeply concerned about the skyrocketing cost of healthcare and prescription drugs while at the same time insurance and drug companies report massive profits. The American people are not threatened by men and women in loving and committed relationships. They are threatened and at risk by a do-nothing Congress that ignores the real challenges facing America.
President Bush and his followers seek to permanently enshrine discrimination and hate as part of our Constitution. Nothing could be more disgraceful and fundamentally un-American. I am committed to defeat this intolerance and work tirelessly for equal rights, justice and respect for all Americans. Gay and lesbian Americans are citizens who must never be treated as second class citizens, as H.J. Res. 88 proposes. They must be guaranteed what America's founding fathers called for in the Declaration of Independence when they stated, ``all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.''
I urge my colleagues to reject discrimination and hate by voting against H.J. Res. 88.
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