Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support for the Respect for Marriage Act, an historic step forward in Democrats' fight to defend the dignity and equality of every American. Let us salute those who have legislated and advocated relentlessly to make this bill the law of the land. I thank the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, Jerry Nadler, Equality Caucus Chair David Cicilline, and all of the members of the Equality Caucus, and the grassroots activists out there, without whose mobilization so many pieces of legislation to expand freedom in our country would not be possible. I say that because when I came to this floor 35 years ago, my first speech on the floor, after I was sworn in, was to talk about--say that I came here to fight HIV and AIDS. What I learned after that is we had to fight against discrimination against people with HIV and AIDS. Two people who were so significant in that are Phyllis and Del, Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon, champions in our country. Well, I will talk about them in a moment. First, I want to salute the Senate for its strong bipartisan legislation, the leadership of Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Senator Tammy Baldwin, and the bipartisan, strong support that this House gave the legislation to send it over to the Senate. Marriage equality has been law across our country since 2015 and, proudly, even longer in the State of California. Indeed, my thoughts today are with Phyllis Lyon and Del Martin, two dear friends and iconic trailblazers.…”