Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I am here today on behalf of both the Progressive Caucus and the Equality Caucus, as we are here today to talk about June being national Pride Month--Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month--as we celebrate every June. This year has been an especially significant year. We have had a lot of victories. One year ago Thursday--tomorrow--is the year anniversary of the Supreme Court decision that ensured that people could have their marriages recognized by the Federal Government. We have also had a number of States in the last year--bringing us up to 19 States and the District of Columbia--where you can legally be married in this country and several others that have approved it, but are currently in the legal status, including my home State of Wisconsin. We have had a big year, in that Michael Sam was the first openly gay person to be drafted into the NFL. So we have had a lot of successes in the last year since our last Pride. We are here today to talk about that and what an important contribution to this country we have from our gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender citizens, but as much we have had all these successes, we have also had a number of projects that we still have to get done. Until everyone has access to full equality in this country, we have not provided equal treatment under the law to each and every person as we would expect. Mr. Speaker, we still have a number of States where you can be fired simply for being gay or lesbian.…”