Cory Booker: “I thank my colleagues who are here and for all of the work that has been done around the Equality Act, not just here in…”

“I thank my colleagues who are here and for all of the work that has been done around the Equality Act, not just here in the Senate but also in the House of Representatives. I want to make this very clear. You look at history, and you see that the fundamental equality of all Americans has been denied for so many generations--for women who fought for equality under the law and the right to vote; for African Americans, who fought for equality under the law. We have seen from our founding they have struggled to make real the promise of this Nation--a promise of an ideal that we are all equal under the law. Our Founders--these imperfect geniuses--enshrined these ideals. This Nation was not founded in perfection but in aspiration. The very Founders themselves referred to Native Americans as savages. They talked about women as not being equal citizens. They denied African Americans full and equal citizenship. Yet these aspirational documents were so profound that every generation of Americans has called to our founding ideals to overcome the inequality that has been inherent in our country. Susan B. Anthony called to the founding documents for her equality and the equality of women. Martin Luther King, on The Mall, called to that check--to that promissory note--that it was time. Yet here we are, in the year 2020, still calling for the full equality of all American citizens when it comes to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender Americans.…”