McGovern pushes for Equality Act, extending protections to LGBTQ

Rules Committee Chairman James P. McGovern (D-MA) spoke on the House Floor urging passage of H.R. 5, Equality Act, a bill that would extend civil rights protections to all people regardless of sexual orientation and gender identity. The House is expected to vote on the bill this week.

Despite significant legal advances in recent years, LGBTQ Americans remain vulnerable to discrimination and too often have little recourse. Fifty percent of the national LGBTQ community lives in states where, though they have the right to marry, there are no explicit non-discrimination protections in other areas of life. 21 states, including Massachusetts, have explicit laws barring discrimination based on sexual orientation in employment, housing, and public accommodations. Massachusetts is also one of only 20 states to have such protections for gender identity.

The Equality Act has the bipartisan support of Members of Congress, the strong support of the business community, and the overwhelming support of the American people – more than 7 in 10 Americans support the bill.

Transcript of McGovern’s Remarks, as Delivered:

I thank the gentlewoman from Pennsylvania, a distinguished member of the Rules Committee, for yielding me the time.

Mr. Speaker, we are just weeks away from the 53rd anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous speech at the National Cathedral.

That’s when he uttered the powerful line, “The moral arc of the universe is long, but it bends towards justice.”

In many ways, those words are as misconstrued as they are well-known. Because some have taken them to mean that, if you just wait long enough, justice is inevitable.

Dr. King knew better, though. He knew that for the moral arc to bend, people needed to be courageous enough to actually bend it.

Just six years after this line was spoken, Members of this chamber showed that courage when they introduced the original Equality Act. They did so in the shadow of the Stonewall riots – at a time when even discussing LGBTQ issues publicly was seen by many as taboo.

These Members recognized the fundamental unfairness in a patchwork of state laws being used to deny some Americans fundamental rights like jobs and homes just because of who they were or who they loved.

They had the backbone to act, giving a voice in these halls to the many advocates nationwide fighting for equality from the outside.

Getting to this point today has been a long road, but so many people and organizations never wavered. And along the way, they changed hearts and minds on this issue.

What may have been a radical idea then, is not now.

In fact, most people today not only support such protections for LGBTQ Americans – they incorrectly believe that they are already in place.

That’s how common sense this bill is, Mr. Speaker.

This House made history when it passed the Equality Act for the first time last Congress. And we did so in a bipartisan way.

Unfortunately, it didn’t even get a vote in the Republican Senate and the prior Republican president didn’t support it. But now, we have a new leadership in the Senate and a president who has made passing this bill a top priority.

This moment represents our best chance yet to finally make the Equality Act the law of the land.

This moment, Mr. Speaker, is an opportunity to bend the moral arc toward justice;

Toward fairness;

And toward equality.

I encourage all my colleagues to seize it.

Let’s support this rule and the underlying bill and let’s take a historic step forward toward building a more fair and just society for all Americans.