| Clyburn Floor Remarks on the Employment Non-Discrimination Act
Wednesday, November 7, 2007
 Printable Format
Madam Speaker, I rise in strong support of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act.
As a former civil rights activist in South Carolina who has been incarcerated a number of times for advocating equal treatment for all, I have come to find that our nation’s civil rights issues are in fact human rights issues.
Whether you are talking about allowing people of color to sit and eat at lunch counters or about ensuring that gay and lesbian Americans can freely go to work and earn a living without fear of being discriminated against – you are talking about basic human rights.
Madam Speaker, before coming to Congress I served 18 years as South Carolina’s Human Affairs Commissioner. In this position I came to find that bigotry and homophobia are sentiments that should never be allowed to permeate the American workplace. Such intolerance does nothing but take us back to a dark moment in our nation’s history that most of us never want to revisit.
And I implore my friends on the other side of the aisle to stop misconstruing this issue as a marriage issue. This is an employment issue, not a marriage issue. And this bill does nothing to infringe on the institution of marriage.
By passing this bill, Members of the House will go on record as wanting to end discrimination in the workplace and not allowing its ugly face to persist. I urge my colleagues to bring fairness to the American workplace and to support this important legislation.
Thank you and I yield back the balance of my time.
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