Democratic Press Conference After the Defeat of the Federal Marriage Amendment
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July 14, 2004 (Page 1)
Transcript: Democrats Hold Conference on Gay Marriage
FDCH E-Media
Wednesday, July 14, 2004; 3:00 PM
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A49742-2004Jul14.html
HOUSE AND SENATE DEMOCRATS HOLD NEWS CONFERENCE ON THE FEDERAL MARRIAGE
AMENDMENT
JULY 14, 2004
SPEAKERS: U.S. SENATOR PATRICK LEAHY (D-VT)
U.S. REPRESENTATIVE JOSEPH CROWLEY (D-NY)
U.S. REPRESENTATIVE DIANA DEGETTE (D-CO)
CHERYL JACQUES, PRESIDENT, HUMAN RIGHTS CAMPAIGN
WADE HENDERSON, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, LEADERSHIP CONFERENCE ON CIVIL RIGHTS
JANE HOLMES DIXON, RET. BISHOP OF WASHINGTON, PRO TEMPORE, EPISCOPAL DIOCESE
LAURA MURPHY, DIRECTOR, ACLU WASHINGTON, D.C., OFFICE
BARRY LYNN, DIRECTOR, AMERICANS UNITED FOR SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE
LISALYN JACOBS, VICE PRESIDENT, GOVERNMENT RELATIONS, LEGAL MOMENTUM
MARTIN ORNELAS-QUINTERO, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, LLEGO
[*]
LEAHY: Good afternoon. The end of the vote was delayed a little bit because I guess not everybody's shown, but enough have done to know where we are. I'm afraid that once again the president has shown himself to be a divider and not a uniter. Every political calculation Republican strategists could have made has been made in their handling of this proposal to amend the Constitution. They cut committee corners, they cut procedural corners on the Senate floor, they scheduled this debate in a way for crass political considerations. And it's turned out to be done for pure politics at the expense of gay and lesbian Americans and the families and friends and coworkers who care about them.
But there has been one silver lining on this. It's been instructive.
It's shown why a constitutional amendment is unnecessary.
The Constitution doesn't require states to recognize marriages performed in states that have marriages opposed to their public policy, and about 40 states have already clearly stated they recognize only marriages between a man and woman.
They also show the United States Supreme Court is not about to grab the other 49 states and say you must do what the Republican- appointed justices did in Massachusetts.
And we also showed this is blatant politics. And you spend -- we only have five left in this session. We spend a week on this. We can't pass a homeland security appropriations bill. We can't pass a bill, patients' bill of rights. We can't pass a budget. And so on.
Remember, we've only amended the Constitution 17 times since the adoption of the Bill of Rights. Most of those times were to expand the rights -- expand the rights -- of Americans, like voting rights.
We did restrict the rights of Americans once, and that was for Prohibition. It didn't take us long to realize restricting the rights of Americans was a mistake.
And the states (inaudible) so worried about this. We take two of the largest states in the country, California and New York, Republican governors, Governor Schwarzenegger, Governor Pataki, they see no need for it.
I compliment the Log Cabin Republicans who forthrightly came out against this and did say that while Vice President Cheney and I rarely agree, we did agree on this. We did agree that we didn't need the constitutional amendment. The vice president wasn't quite as vociferous in stating it as he is on some things, but we do agree on that.
So many want to speak. We're starting a little bit late. I'll turn it over to Congressman Crowley from New York.
CROWLEY: Thank you, Senator.
I think there may be a vote going on soon.
(CROSSTALK)
CROWLEY: Oh, OK, OK. But I want to thank the senator and congratulate him and his colleagues in their victory today here on the floor of the Senate.
Today the U.S. Senate is focusing on what one of its supporters calls, and I quote, "The so-called greatest threat to America as we know it," end quote, an amendment to the Constitution to ban gay marriage.
CROWLEY: Being a New Yorker and from New York City, I think America saw what the greatest threat to America was on 9/11, 2001. But instead of focusing on capturing and destroying Osama bin Laden, Mullah Omar and the Al Qaida network, the president and his supporters in Congress continue to push for a constitutional amendment to limit the rights of a certain group of Americans.
Republicans can't run on their record. They haven't caught Osama. They have lost over 2 million jobs in the private sector economy. And millions of Americans have lost their health insurance and retirement pensions, all in just three short years of this administration. But even then, Mr. Bush's own Republicans are fleeing the sinking ship called the Bush-Cheney 2004. His own party won't even given Mr. Bush the votes he needs for an even symbolic victory on this issue.
This is Bush reelection politics at its worst. Gays and lesbians are one of the last minority groups in the United States' society today where it is still publicly acceptable to be hated. But that doesn't make it right.
And everything surrounding this debate in the Senate today, the amendment itself, the slippery Republican maneuvering that went on, the Republican gay baiting for those mysterious 4 million far-right conservatives who supposedly didn't vote in the 2000 election, all of it is wrong, especially for those people who call themselves compassionate conservatives.
For a man who came to Washington as a uniter, I've never seen a more divided nation in my lifetime. It is time for a Congress that is responsive to the American people and not to the Bush-Cheney reelection campaign.
This is a great victory today for all Americans, not only for the people within the gay and lesbian community, but for all Americans, that this resolution to amend our constitution will not go forward in the U.S. Senate today.
We'll still wait and see what chicanery will go on in the House of Representatives, but we'll keep a watchful eye and we will be there to knock back that movement in the House itself.
And with me is one of the members from Colorado, Diana DeGette.
DEGETTE: Thank you very much, Joe.
I'm Congresswoman Diana DeGette from the 1st congressional district of Colorado. I'm also the House floor whip for the Democrats. And I have a message for the Republican leadership in the House: Take a clue from the Senate. The support is not there in Congress for a constitutional amendment that would remove rights for a group of Americans. Congress has serious business to do, and we have five more weeks of legislative business left to do it in.
DEGETTE: Not even a majority of votes could be mustered for this amendment in the Senate, much less the two-thirds required. The same is true in the House. I've been one of the members, including Mr. Crowley, Tammy Baldwin, Barney Frank and others who have been counting the votes in the House. The votes are not there in the House to amend the Constitution. So let's call this what it really is: a blatant attempt to prey on Americans' fears to affect the outcome of the election in November. This is wrong. Americans should not and will not stand for it.
And I ask the Republican leadership in the House to focus on the issues that we care about: jobs, the continuing threat of terrorism, health care for all of our children, and a cohesive environmental policy that will stop the kinds of blackouts that we had last summer.
Let's focus on these issues, not just this week and next week, but in the fall, as Americans will be deciding who they will vote for in the polls. Let's not use this vote, which they know they will lose, to tie up our time. Let's conduct the people's business and let's do it now.
Thank you very much.
(APPLAUSE)
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