Political Quotes

“I thank the gentleman for yielding and for organizing this Special Order hour. We certainly have a lot to celebrate in terms of progress toward full equality for the LGBT community, and a lot to be proud of. We are now living in a country where, in 19 States and the District of Columbia, individuals are afforded full marriage equality. We have work to do here, as you were just mentioning, by passing the Respect For Marriage Act, to be sure that we repeal DOMA, and legislatively doing what the Windsor case requires. We have work to do in terms of passing the Employment Non- Discrimination Act to ensure that no qualified worker in America loses his or her job because of their sexual orientation or gender identity. I want to compliment the President on his executive order that will ensure that this kind of employment discrimination does not occur in the Federal workplace. This President has provided extraordinary leadership on our collective effort to bring full equality to our community. I also want to talk about LGBT rights internationally because this is an issue in many places around the world where members of our community are subjected to imprisonment, physical violence, sometimes imposition of death sentences for certain criminal provisions, solely because they are gay or lesbian.…”