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Quigley Speaks in Support of Marriage Equality, DOMA Repeal

September 15, 2009
Speeches

Today, September 15th, Congressman Quigley spoke at a press conference attended by fellow members Rep. Jerrold Nadler, Rep. Tammy Baldwin, Rep. Jared Polis, Rep. Barbara Lee, and Rep. John Conyers, Jr., advocating for the repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act.

You can watch the speech by clicking here.

The full text of the Congressman's remarks are as follows:

I want to thank the members who are co-sponsoring this bill, and I want to make an announcement today:

Today, in supporting this Act, I am an arch conservative. Why is that? Because when you think about it, what have the conservatives said for all time about government's role? That government's role is to stay out of people's personal lives.

This will allow people privacy and the right to make decisions that are most important to them. But most of all, it is about respect for what they decide to do with their own lives as long as they're not hurting anyone else. So what, I would ask, is a more intimate, more important, more critical decision, a more sacred decision than who we love - and how we express that love?

So, for me, this is really a bill that should have bipartisan support. It's the right thing to do. It's about fairness. It's about equality. But most importantly, it's about the heart of the conservative thought; and that is privacy and the right for individuals to decide how to lead their own lives.

A second thought I had in this when I look at this is we're often reminiscing about Lincoln. And I can't help but when you think about measures like this to think about the Gettysburg Address and what he said. You can interpret it in so many different ways, but think about it in this essence. He was saying 87 years ago, did we actually mean it when we said all men are created equal? He was upping it. He was saying it wasn't just as we did at the very beginning, protecting white male property owners, it was about extending that even more - and he was absolutely right.

Since that time this country has met that challenge at a slow pace, but an excellent pace toward more fairness, more equality and more equity. This is another great day toward that end and I want to thank the sponsors of this legislation for their efforts.

Thank you.

House_Seal

Issues:Equality