Jolene Unsoeld: “I ask my colleagues to support my amendment, to correct the amendment by the gentleman from Missouri [Mr. Hancock]…”

“I ask my colleagues to support my amendment, to correct the amendment by the gentleman from Missouri [Mr. Hancock], whose effect would be to prohibit the discussion of homosexuality even in the context of providing health care as a result of the passage of his amendment. I ask my colleagues to consider some of the words that were spoken on this floor today and questions that were posed to us, Mr. Chairman. How many children must die before we are willing to accept the teaching of the local curriculum so that lives can be saved, so that the mental, emotional health, as well as the physical needs of those children can be met. I ask my colleagues to support us today in our attempt to reach out to those young people wherever they are, to support them in what they need to go forward in their own lives and for us to stand aside and not be the Federal Government dictating to the local school boards, but, rather, to permit those people who run for the school board on the local level, those people who know the issue on a day-to-day basis, who visit those schools, who talk to the teachers, who talk to the parents, who are the parents, to let them make these very important decisions. I ask for support of the Unsoeld amendment.”