Sheila Jackson Lee: “I thank the gentlewoman for yielding time. I am on the floor again holding up the Constitution, which should not be…”

“I thank the gentlewoman for yielding time. I am on the floor again holding up the Constitution, which should not be eliminated for the fighting force of Americans who have been declared by nations around the world as the strongest, most powerful fighting force in the world. Whatever my friend says on the other side of the aisle, I have no basis for his statistics. No one has undermined the force of the men and women. Let me pay tribute to them. Equal protection of the law says basically a healthcare issue is a healthcare issue. Trans people have healthcare issues. Trans children have healthcare issues. It is an outrage that we should deny Americans who want to die on a battlefield the right to get TRICARE. Black maternal mortality is more prone to African-American women. Should they be in the military and denied healthcare because they have a Black maternal mortality and are more apt to have babies that die? No. They want to die on the field, too. They want to be able to wear the uniform. I have never been able to understand how you can deny people healthcare. It is healthcare. Let me say it again: It is healthcare. For trans children, it is more your denial, your denunciation, your contempt, your hatred that drives them to do anything toward themselves. It could be a heterosexual, and you condemn them, and they may be prone to suicide. This is not apt to those who happen to be trans.…”