Executive Session
Floor Speech
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Mr. JONES. Mr. President, today I rise to talk about a matter that is very close to my heart and rooted in my faith and belief that we are all God's children created in God's image. It is an issue of fundamental equality, of basic human dignity, and it is consistent with the values we strive to embody as American citizens.
I stand today to honor the contributions of LGBTQ Americans--the contributions they have given so selflessly to our Nation--and to remind all of my colleagues of the great risks these Americans still face simply because of who they love and who they are.
It was 50 years ago this month that the gay community finally rose up. The Stonewall riots were a product of a brutal police force cracking down on the gay community. They found a voice that others had in the previous years. This Pride Month, June, we celebrate that 50 years of a rise in the voice of people to be treated just basically as everyone else. It is an important issue for me. It is an important issue for a number of reasons--first and foremost, because I am a father, but also, I am a product of the Deep South in which I was raised. As a kid, I came of age during a very tumultuous time in our Nation's history, a very tumultuous time in Alabama.
When I was a kid, our schools remained segregated for years after the Brown v. Board of Education decision, and my Black peers faced very difficult and different prospects for their future in life, which was a direct result of the Jim Crow laws that were still on the books in my childhood.
Men, women, and children were regularly targeted for violent attacks simply because of the color of their skin, the way they were born, and their audacity--their audacity to yearn for freedom and love and acceptance and respect.
The wounds of those years left scars that are still visible in many places today--many places not just in Alabama but across the country. The inequality and divisive rhetoric of the time and the tensions it fomented fueled the violence and tragedy that were wrought upon so many innocent people, especially in the 1950s and in the 1960s in Alabama, in the Deep South, and so many other places across this land.
I raise this because history has shown us time and again that when our government sanctions discrimination or merely turns a blind eye to it, we cause irreparable harm to those people. In doing so, we also turn our backs on the fundamental promise of this great country--that we are all endowed with certain unalienable rights, ``all'' being the key word in that phrase. We are all endowed with certain unalienable rights.
Without exception, policies of legalized discrimination that are fueled by fear always become a black mark on our Nation's history. Today, we can reflect on those incidents from the civil rights movement with more clarity and take pride in the significant progress we have made over time, but what we cannot do is delude ourselves into thinking this work is nearly concluded. There is still work to be done with regard to gay rights. There is still work to be done when you consider that LGBTQ people in this country are still not guaranteed permanent Federal protection against discrimination--they are still not. There is still work to be done when we see that the LGBTQ community youth are five times more likely to attempt suicide than their heterosexual peers--five times more likely to commit suicide. And we know there is still work to be done when LGBTQ youth are more likely to become homeless and to face physical and sexual exploitation.
Our former colleague in this body who was here for such a long time-- he was here when I worked in the Senate in 1979 and 1980--Republican Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah spoke passionately on this floor last year, making an important point about the scope of the challenge we still face. He said:
Ensuring that our LGBT friends feel loved and accepted is not a political issue; we all have a stake in this. We all have family or loved ones who have felt marginalized in one way or another because of gender identity or sexual orientation, and we need to be there for them.
Senator Hatch. I miss him, even though I am glad my friend from Utah is here.
Instead of love and acceptance, however, too often the LGBTQ community still faces hate, violence, and discrimination in the workplace, in the classroom, in the housing market, and, more and more, in our society.
In fact, today we remember the lives of 49 innocent people who were senselessly murdered in Orlando, FL, 3 years ago at Pulse, an LGBTQ nightclub.
Just last week, a Detroit man was charged with first-degree murder for killing three LGBTQ people in an apparent hate crime.
In my home State of Alabama, a local mayor recently made headlines around the country for advocating the killing of LGBTQ people, claiming it was the only way to ``fix'' the problem.
In Washington, DC, over the weekend, a panic ensued and thousands fled for their lives when it was believed there was an active shooter targeting the city's annual Pride parade.
In Alabama, young Nigel Shelby, a high school freshman from Huntsville, ended his life this past spring after enduring bullying from his peers and struggling through bouts of depression. Mourning her son, his heartbroken mother called him the ``sweetest child.'' She said Nigel was ``always full of joy, full of light.'' As a father, I cannot begin to imagine the pain she and her family have experienced at this sudden loss. But I will tell you, as the father of a gay son, I have had to imagine the pain and uncertainty her child must have felt in a world in which he didn't feel fully accepted.
These incidents are just a few of the most recent examples I could share. Quite frankly, I have hesitated to even mention incidents in Alabama because we sometimes have the stigma of discrimination in my State.
Most recently in Alabama, the Alabama Legislature passed a most restrictive law dealing with abortion and women's rights. It was a callous law, and once again people are looking at Alabama and saying: What is going on? They look at this smalltown mayor and say: What is going on? But let me tell you, folks, for anybody who is listening to this, that is not Alabama. That is not the people of Alabama. That may be a gerrymandered legislature that represents only a small segment, but that is not the good people I know across the State of Alabama. Regardless of their political persuasion, regardless of their age, regardless of their religion, those instances do not represent the great State of Alabama.
Those are the most recent examples, but it is clear that the fear LGBTQ people can feel is by no means unfounded.
In this Pride Month, while we celebrate the LGBT community and the right for everyone to live and love as they choose, we cannot forget that for this community, there is still much work to be done. That is why I have cosponsored and I am so proud to cosponsor the Equality Act, and I urge my colleagues to do the same. Our colleagues in the House of Representatives have already passed this legislation, which fills a gap in our Nation's Federal civil rights laws by providing permanent protections for the LGBTQ community regardless of where they live.
This act is an important step. It is not a silver bullet, but it is an incredible, important step forward in what we can do to recognize the dignity of all people in this country.
Right now, these protections are simply a patchwork of State laws and other regulations. In 30 States, including Alabama, LGBTQ people are at risk of being fired, evicted, or denied other services because of their sexual orientation or gender.
I urge my colleagues to look at who is supporting the Equality Act. This is not a bipartisan issue; this is a nonpartisan issue. If you look at the over 500 organizations, a couple of hundred major corporations--the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has endorsed this bill and is urging its passage because so many across the country recognize the importance of these protections.
How many times have you seen businesses and how many times have you seen the chamber--and I mean no disrespect to them--endorse a law that bans discrimination when they know it puts certain burdens on their members? This is a historic opportunity that we have here--a historic opportunity--and we need to take advantage of it.
According to the Public Religion Research Institute, a majority of people in every State support a law like this, including a majority of the folks in Alabama. Those majorities extend across party lines, religion, and demographics, but despite most Americans being on the same page about this, the minority in opposition to this bill and in opposition to the LGBTQ community in general seems to be firm. It seems to be solid. It seems to be vocal. Opposition to such expansions of civil rights protections usually is.
From where I sit, this is not a zero-sum game. My view on this is informed by my experience. Most of what we do here is informed by experience, and my view on this issue is informed by my own experience as a father, as someone who loves his son very much--as any parent loves their son. It is informed by my experience as a lawyer, having spent my career working for justice. No matter where the downtrodden might be, I have spent my career working to make sure people are treated the same under the law, knowing that if you can change those laws and you can get treated the same under the law, hearts and minds will follow. We have seen it happen time and again.
My view is informed by my religion, my religion as a Christian and my belief that we are called upon to love one another. It is the same and similar view expressed by our colleague Orrin Hatch in his floor speech last year.
We are called to stand up and fight for equal treatment and dignity of our fellow human beings--dignity and respect--to fight for people like my talented and compassionate son Carson and for all other sons, daughters, nieces, nephews, grandsons, granddaughters, friends, and neighbors, all out there who deserve to pursue a full, free, joyous, and loving life.
Today the Senate has an opportunity to stand up and make a very clear statement that we will not allow State government-sanctioned discrimination of LGBTQ people. We will not continue to allow that discrimination to continue, but we have to make that stand, and that stand can start right here. It has already started in the House.
The time is now to send a message. The time is now to send a message to all people--to all people across this country--that we in the U.S Senate believe that all people deserve to live with dignity, free from the fear of discrimination.
As I prepared these remarks and I read through them and made changes, I thought about my old boss whose seat I now fill, Howell Heflin. It was in the 1990s that Howell Heflin from Alabama, a son of the South whose relatives fought in the Civil War, stood before this body and said that it was time to remove the Confederate battle flag from all Federal Government-sanctioned emblems. It was a bold statement. Now we have a son of the South standing up for what in the Bible Belt is that love and respect, a son of the South who is now talking about his family, talking about discrimination, and reaching out to people across the aisle and within my own party to say that it is time; it is time to make that move.
So I ask my colleagues to take this step with me, to do the right thing by calling on Leader McConnell to bring this legislation to a vote in the U.S. Senate. Let all 100 Senators stand up and be counted one way or another. Every voice counts. Let every U.S. Senator say where they are by a vote on the Equality Act and to do it sooner rather than later.
This is a matter of civil rights, this is a matter of human rights, and this is a matter of being on the right side of history. We have an important opportunity right now to get it right. It is right now. It is the right time.
Thank you.
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