Political Quotes

“Mr. Chair, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Virginia (Ms. McClellan.) Ms. McCLELLAN. Mr. Chair, have you ever wondered why transgender individuals are more likely to have mental health issues or commit suicide or attempt to commit suicide? It is not just our servicemembers. It is also their dependents. Maybe the reason is the harassment and demonization that they have faced for generations from the far right. Maybe it is for the same reason a student whom I represented who identified as transgender wanted to commit suicide because on a daily basis in their school they received texts and threats from friends who said: ``You should kill yourself'' solely because they identified as transgender. Maybe it is because the vitriol that we have heard in committee and on this floor against the transgender community tells them: You are not valuable as a human being. That is why this amendment is so cruel. What this amendment does is to say that in the same body, from the same party who has made arguments about individual freedom and decried what they see as people trying to impose their views on other people, this is an amendment that says that they are going to impose their views on what transgender people should or should not do when making their own healthcare decisions.…”