During Tuesday's press briefing, Rep. Mark Takano (D-CA) discussed the reintroduction of the Equality for All Act.
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00:00Podium now over to Congressman Mark Tucano, who chairs the Equality Caucus, who has been an outstanding leader in this movement and great partner in bringing this bill forward. Thank you.
00:09Well, thank you. Thank you, Senator Merck Lee, for your long-standing advocacy of the Equality Act in the Senate as the lead in the Senate.
00:20So I'm Congressman Mark Tucano. I'm a proud gay man and chair of the Congressional Equality Caucus.
00:29And I'm honored to be joined today by my fellow LGBTQ plus members of Congress, Senator Baldwin, Congressman Pappas, and actually Mike Quigley is one of our Equality Caucus members.
00:46And also with the Stadfast allies who have stood shoulder to shoulder with us in the fight for equality.
00:54Leader Schumer, Whip Clark, Speaker Emerita, Pelosi, and I've already mentioned Senator Booker, Senator Merk Lee and Senator Booker.
01:02Under the leadership of Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, this bill, the Equality Act, passed twice through the House of Representatives.
01:10And I'm expecting her shortly, but her presence with us today at this movement is bigger than any one of us.
01:19Today, we introduced the Equality Act not just as a bill, but as a declaration that freedom, dignity, and opportunity must belong to all Americans.
01:30That is the promise of the Equality Act, full humanity under the law.
01:34Right now, the fear in our community is deep, and it is palpable.
01:41The waves of attacks on LGBTQ plus Americans, LGBTQI plus Americans, have swept from state legislatures into the chambers of Congress and the White House.
01:52We are facing the most anti-LGBTQI plus presidential administration in recent history.
01:58And for that reason, we demand that our existence be not just recognized, but protected.
02:04We demand not just the right to survive, but to thrive.
02:09We demand the same right as any other American to live freely in this country without being forced to justify our existence or prove our worth.
02:17Now, more than ever, LGBTQI plus Americans need our fundamental civil rights codified into law.
02:26The Equality Act prohibits discrimination in seven key areas of everyday life and extends to the LGBTQI plus community the same civil rights that other Americans enjoy.
02:37It strengthens the civil rights framework, not just for LGBTQI plus Americans, but for all Americans, reinforcing protections for women, religious minorities, and people of color.
02:48And it says clearly you should not be denied a job, a home, a loan, or a seat at the table simply because of who you are.
02:56We cannot leave those basic rights vulnerable to a patchwork of inconsistent protections, hostile administrations, or unpredictable courts.
03:04Now, I know the sting of discrimination. I have lived it.
03:08I am the child and grandchild of Americans who were stripped of their rights and incarcerated for being of Japanese descent during World War II.
03:17As a teenager in the late 1970s coming to terms with my own sexuality, I watched legislators in California host debates on whether gays and lesbians should be allowed to teach in public schools.
03:30Undeterred, I would later go on to become a teacher myself.
03:35And when I ran for Congress in 1994, I was publicly outed by my opponent and made the target of homophobic attack ads.
03:43I lost that race, but when I won nearly two decades later, I became the first openly gay person of color to be elected to Congress.
03:50It was deeply meaningful to me, but to be clear, I was not the first gay person of color to serve in Congress.
03:59As a boy, I watched in awe of Congresswoman Barbara Jordan participate in the Watergate impeachment hearings.
04:06And in her speech, Congresswoman Jordan immortalized her conviction that her faith in the Constitution was whole, complete, and total.
04:16Though the Constitution had not originally included her, a black woman, when it was written, it had come to include her after two centuries of struggle and amendment.
04:27And despite that, Congresswoman Jordan still had to hide from public scrutiny that she had spent 20 years in a loving relationship with a woman.
04:35At that time, being openly LGBTQI plus would certainly have come at the cost of her career.
04:40Today, the National Archives recognizes her as the first LGBTQI plus woman in Congress.
04:48I share her belief that my faith in the Constitution is whole, complete, and total.
04:55I believe that all people are entitled to the fruits of democracy, and that includes freedom, equality, and justice for all.
05:02That the Constitution's promises were never meant to be frozen in time.
05:07That they must be renewed by future generations.
05:10That the idea of America, an imperfect country still full of promise, is still worth fighting for.
05:15And right now, LGBTQI plus Americans are afraid.
05:20There is fear that the progress we have made in the decades, in the last decades, is being lost.
05:25Yet, we must remember that we have seen and overcome darker times before.
05:31That there was a time when being out was nearly impossible, as it was for Barbara Jordan.
05:36And our existence was universally criminalized.
05:39We have gone from the rage at the riots of Stonewall to the joy of celebrations of marriage equality.
05:46We have come out of the closet and survived the scourge of HIV.
05:49And today, we fight to win full equality under the law.
05:56We were born for this fight and forged in resistance.
05:59The LGBTQI plus community's generational gift, passed down from our ancestors, is grit, persistence, and unconquerable strength.
06:08We will continue to fight.
06:10We will propel ourselves into a brighter, more hopeful, more just future.
06:15And we will not stop until the Equality Act is the law of the land.