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Pelosi Remarks at Press Conference Introducing the Equality Act of 2015

July 23, 2015

Contact: Drew Hammill, 202-226-7616

Washington, D.C. – Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi delivered remarks today at the press conference introducing the Equality Act of 2015, an historic, comprehensive LGBT non-discrimination bill that ensures all Americans have the same basic protections under the law. Below are the Leader's remarks:

"Good afternoon, everyone. And a good afternoon it is. Here we stand in this historic Capitol building. On the wall looking down from us is President Lyndon Johnson who signed and fought for the Civil Rights Act as well as Medicare, Medicaid – many anniversaries this year. Out the window we see the Supreme Court in full view from where we stand. And, as Senator Booker said, engraved on its walls is the vision of America.

"In this room we stand with an icon of ending discrimination and promoting justice for all: John Lewis. Also in this room we have a voice of the future. This little child, this beautiful little child, with her moms. And we are here to put forth historic legislation because of the leadership in the House of David Cicilline aided by Jared Polis. They got over 150 co-sponsors in a matter of hours. It was quite remarkable. And we thank them for their leadership and we thank Senator Merkley for his leadership in the United States Senate. Thank you, Senator Merkley, for your leadership.

[Applause]

"But all of the inside maneuvering that is done would not be successful or possible without the outside mobilization, and for that I'd like to thank Chad Griffin, Winnie Stachelberg, Mara Keisling for their leadership. Thank you for helping to make this day possible. And pretty soon we're going to be hearing from the real stars today when we hear from our guests Krista and Jami Contreras, Carter Brown and Luke Peterson. They're what we're here about.

"But in the interest of time, I want to associate myself with the remarks of all who have gone before me. That's pretty presumptuous because they were pretty great – Senator Booker right before me and John Lewis before him and Tammy [Baldwin] and our two lead sponsors. But I want to add this because we're talking about history and where we stand and our perspective and how we got here. It wasn't been that long ago when we passed in the Congress the hate crimes legislation – fully inclusive hate crimes legislation. That was step one and it was a big step. And then we had the repeal of ‘Don't Ask, Don't Tell' with the help of President Obama taking the lead. And we salute him for his courage and leadership there. And then the Court. We had four issues: again, hate crimes, ‘Don't Ask, Don't Tell', ENDA and marriage equality. Well, the Court and the public took care of the marriage equality issue but more work needs to be done.

"And so, it was time for ENDA. And we looked at ENDA and thought, ‘Most people thought there wasn't discrimination in the workplace against LGBT people.' They didn't think so – well, because we live in California.

[Laughter]

"But when we went to address that issue, David and Jared and others and Jeff and Tammy and others, and friends outside said: ‘Wait a minute, there is no place for discrimination in America – not in employment, not in housing, not in transportation, not in health care, not in any subject that you can name because we live in America, and as other speakers have said – Senator Booker most recently – ‘with liberty and justice for all.' We pledge allegiance to that every day. We pledge allegiance, ‘liberty and justice for all.' For all. And our Founders – when we take that pledge and when we honor it, we honor the values of our Founders who pledged, ‘life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness' for all Americans.

"So what we are doing here today is very patriotic. It's very American. And it's a proud day for all of us who have been engaged in this fight for a long time to see what people call now the ‘rapid process' – like a star is born, the LGBT community, which has been fighting the fight for many, many years. So I thank all of you who have borne the pain, who have fought the fight and now, hopefully, savor the victory.

"And I just want to add one more thing: this legislation is very good. It has very strong protections for women in it. So for many reasons, this is a cause for celebration.

"And now it would have been my privilege to introduce Senator Schumer, who has been with us all the way on this issue, but his leadership responsibilities called him away. And so now we can turn to Mr. Cicilline – oh, to Steny. I skipped over Steny. Now, really a champion on these LGBT issues for a very long time in the Congress of the United States and even before, the House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer."

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Issues:LGBTQ+