Washington, D.C. – Today, Colorado U.S. Senator Michael Bennet spoke on the Senate floor calling on his colleagues to take up the Equality Act, historic legislation to create comprehensive anti-discrimination protections for LGBTQ Americans. Although the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision banned discrimination against LGBTQ Americans in the workplace, the Equality Act would secure protections for LGBTQ Americans in housing, public accommodations, education, and other areas. In his speech, Bennet highlighted Colorado’s leadership in passing anti-discrimination protections and making history with the election of prominent LGBTQ state officials.

In his speech, Bennet said: “[A]nyone who’s studied the history of our democracy knows it’s always been hard to make progress. This struggle has always been a battle of our highest ideals and our worst instincts as a country. It’s been true since our founding, when the same people who wrote that ‘all men are created equal’ also perpetuated human slavery and denied equality to so many others. In fact, I don’t think it’s too much to say, Mr. President, that our history is a story of our struggle with that contradiction – between the promise of equality and the reality of inequality in America – between our highest ideals and our worst instincts.”

“[N]ow it’s time for the Senate to do our work, finally, and pass the Equality Act,” said Bennet. “The House passed the Equality Act 13 months ago, and we’ve not acted, in our typical fashion. That’s another 13 months when LGBTQ Americans could get married on a Sunday and fired on Monday. Another 13 months when our neighbors could be denied housing, denied health care, or be turned out of a store, because of who they are. Mr. President, Americans understand that no good comes from hoarding freedoms and equality. When we take the opposite view, we act against our traditions. As a nation, we will never flourish if we choose to depend on a permanent underclass, deprived of some or all of the rights and freedoms others enjoy. Free people do not remain free by denying freedom to others. We should vote on the Equality Act, and pass it, today.” 

Bennet introduced the Equality Act with his colleagues in March 2019. The Equality Act would ensure LGBTQ people have the same non-discrimination protections as other Americans by adding sexual orientation and gender identity, alongside protected characteristics like race and religion, to existing federal laws. The bill would explicitly ban discrimination in a host of areas, including employment, housing, public accommodations, jury service, access to credit, and federal funding. The bill would also add protections against sex discrimination to federal laws where they had not been included previously, including those addressing public accommodations and federal funding. 

Bennet’s remarks as delivered are below: 

I want to thank my colleagues from Oregon, Senator Wyden for his remarks, Senator Merkley for his leadership on the bill, and Senator Baldwin from Wisconsin for her extraordinary leadership and service to our country.  

It is a great privilege to be here today. My friend Cory Booker from New Jersey, who’s been fighting for these issues for his whole career, and who knows, as I know, that anyone who’s studied the history of our democracy knows it’s always been hard to make progress. 

This struggle has always been a battle of our highest ideals and our worst instincts as a country. It’s been true since our founding, when the same people who wrote that “all men are created equal” also perpetuated human slavery and denied equality to so many others. In fact, I don’t think it’s too much to say, Mr. President, that our history is a story of our struggle with that contradiction – between the promise of equality and the reality of inequality in America – between our highest ideals and our worst instincts. 

We struggle with that today.  

Since he took office, over and over, President Trump has called on our worst instincts in almost everything he’s done – including his attacks on access to health care, housing, and education for LGBTQ Americans. Just last week, he went out of his way to strip transgender Americans of their access to health care. But just as President Trump was depriving hard won rights – dragging us backward again – in Colorado, on the very same day, colleagues, our state legislature passed a law to make it harder to wage violence against LGBTQ people in my state. And listen to this – the vote was 63-1 in the Colorado House. It was 35-0 in the Colorado Senate.   

Notwithstanding President’s Trump’s anti-civil rights, anti-civil liberties agenda, in Colorado – a Western state, a purple state – Republican and Democratic elected officials in their legislative season are fighting for our highest ideals and rejecting our worst instincts. 

In fact, my state passed our version of the Equality Act over a decade ago. It’s why we banned conversion therapy and passed Jude’s Law, which makes it easier for transgender Americans to change their name and government documents. It’s how we’ve elected our state’s first openly gay governor, Jared Polis, and our first transgender state legislator, Brianna Titone. It’s why we were one of the first states in America, I say to my colleague from New Jersey, to pass real accountability for police brutality, with a bill led by Leslie Herod – Colorado’s first LGBTQ state legislator of color. This week, we passed that bill 52-13 in the House and 32-2 in the Senate. It contains many of the same reforms that Senator Booker and Senator Harris are leading on here. 

So I’m here to tell you that, more and more, Colorado and the country understand what equality has come to mean in America, how to resolve some of these contradictions in the year 2020. And this week, even the United States Supreme Court seems to understand it. Just in the last week, a Republican-appointed justice rejected Donald Trump’s arguments and wrote for a majority of the Court affirming equality for LGBTQ Americans. 

And this morning, Mr. President, the Court overturned President Trump’s malicious attack on Dreamers, reaffirming the rule of law and, for the moment, protecting three quarters of a million people who know no other country but the United States of America. 

And now it’s time for the Senate to do our work, finally, and pass the Equality Act. The House passed the Equality Act 13 months ago, and we’ve not acted, in our typical fashion. That’s another 13 months when LGBTQ Americans could get married on a Sunday and fired on Monday. Another 13 months when our neighbors could be denied housing, denied health care, or be turned out of a store, because of who they are.

Mr. President, Americans understand that no good comes from hoarding freedoms and equality. When we take the opposite view, we act against our traditions. As a nation, we will never flourish if we choose to depend on a permanent underclass, deprived of some or all of the rights and freedoms others enjoy. Free people do not remain free by denying freedom to others.  

We should vote on the Equality Act, and pass it, today.