Political Quotes

“I thank my colleague from Maine for her statement. This is not a partisan issue. Senator Mark Kirk, my Republican colleague from Illinois, is a cosponsor of this issue as well. When it comes to discrimination, neither party has a monopoly on opposing discrimination. We should be working together. So I thank the Senator from Maine for speaking as she has so often for the kinds of liberties and values which we all should share in this country. If we ask most Americans this very basic question: Is it legal to discriminate against someone because they are gay--to say I won't hire you, I won't promote you, I won't give you a raise--80 percent of Americans say, of course not. That can't be legal in America. The reality is that in more than half of the States it is legal, and in more than two-thirds of the States it is legal to discriminate based on gender identity. That which we take for granted as part of the ordinary course of life and business in America turns out not to be true. This ENDA bill, which is going to be considered on a procedural vote in about an hour, is an effort to establish a national standard of tolerance, a national standard against discrimination.…”