Hoyer Remarks During Special Order Hour on the Supreme Court’s Consideration of Marriage Equality

WASHINGTON, DC – House Democratic Whip Steny H. Hoyer (MD) delivered remarks today during a Special Order hour on the Supreme Court's consideration of marriage equality next week. Below are his remarks and a link to the video.

Click here to watch the video. 

“I thank Congresswoman [Bonnie Watson] Coleman for yielding some time, and I thank her for organizing this special order and for her leadership on this issue. She's a new Member but not a new person to public service, not a new person to leadership, not a new person to fighting for the rights of every American. And I thank her very much for her leadership, her commitment, and her courage. I also want to thank, Mr. Speaker, the LGBT Equality Caucus for its powerful advocacy on this issue.

“The Supreme Court next week is hearing more than just an argument about same-sex marriage. It is considering a question fundamental to what it means to be an American. Our nation, as we say so proudly, was founded on the premise that all people are created equal. Not the same, but equal – irrespective of the differences.

“Our Declaration of Independence, as all of us quote so often, says: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men’ – and, of course, if Jefferson were writing today it would be either all people or all humankind – ‘are created equal.’ And they are endowed not by a Congress, not by a Constitution, not by a will of the Majority, they are ‘endowed by their creator’ – by God – ‘with certain unalienable rights.’ And ‘among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.’ That, of course, has not always been America's performance. Notwithstanding, it has been its promise.

“Next week, the highest court in our land will be asked to consider whether these words apply to same-sex couples who love one another. Many courts have already said that it does. Marriage equality provides same-sex households vital legal protections and economic security that we would ask for ourselves.

“Marriage equality would mean that approximately 250,000 children in America, who are being raised in same-sex households, will see their parents receive equal treatment. One of those families is led by – or, perhaps, his partner would say he leads it – [Rep.] Sean Patrick Maloney. Three beautiful, loving, and loved children. I have seen them all together. They are a happy, healthy family. Study after study has shown [children in same-sex households] are doing as well as their peers from opposite-sex households academically, psychologically, and socially.

“Marriage equality also means spousal benefits for those who share their lives with and care for their same-sex partners. And marriage equality will mean that same-sex couples, Mr. Speaker, could make medical and end of life decisions for their loved ones.

“These are tangible benefits. These, I would suggest to you, Mr. Speaker, are the pursuit of happiness.  Tangible benefits ought to be treated equally under the law in every state of our Union. Not in twenty-eight, not in forty-eight, but in all fifty and the District of Columbia.

“Thanks to the extraordinary courage of millions who have come out to their friends and family – which took a lot of courage – and spoken with their neighbors and co-workers, the majority of Americans – a majority of Americans, a majority of Americans! – now agree that every loving couple ought to be treated equally and have their right to marry recognized.

“I will tell you, Mr. Speaker, I have three daughters. I have three grandchildren. One of my grandchildren is an adult. All four of those women would say to me: Dad, why is it any of our business who somebody else loves, who somebody else wants to commit to? Why is that our business? What difference does it make to us? What makes a difference to us is how they treat us. Whether they obey the law. Whether, as Martin Luther King would say, the ‘content of their character’ is such that we ought to respect them – not because of the differences of the color of their skin or their gender or their nationality or their religion or their choice of whom they want to love.

“Born equal, endowed by God with certain unalienable rights, and ‘among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.’ Is there a happier time in one's life than when one pledges themselves to another?  We all gather, we all celebrate, we all wish them well.

“LGBT Americans now have the right to marry and have their families treated equally in thirty-seven states and the District of Columbia. In the remaining states, however, LGBT residents are watching the Supreme Court with great anticipation. Hopefully the Court will do as Earl Warren's Court did in Brown v. Board of Education and say that separate is not equal. Treating people here differently than people here who love one another is not equal. Tens of millions of Americans who stand with our friends in the LGBT community in support of marriage equality and, who believe, as I do, that a ruling in support of the lower courts that have again and again sided with same-sex couples and have said that the law requires – the Constitution requires – that we do, in fact, live out our promise of treatment on an equal basis. We need to bring those words of the Declaration of Independence closer to their full realization, Mr. Speaker, and hopefully the Court will do that.

“Mr. Speaker, I’m from the State of Maryland. I was proud to join in sending an amicus brief to the Court in March arguing that the state bans are unconstitutional. In my State of Maryland, our legislature carried out what Ms. Coleman, what I, have said. Equality means equality. And we passed marriage equality.  And, Mr. Speaker, some folks didn't agree with that and petitioned it to referendum. And I’m very proud of the citizens of Maryland. They were the first state to say in referendum at the polls ‘we believe equality means equality’ and passed that resolution and confirmed that law.

“I thank the Gentlelady from New Jersey, a leader in that state, a leader in our nation, for leading this special order hour. Mr. Speaker, I hope we will be able to return to this Floor over the summer to praise a ruling by the Court that I anticipate will be historic and accurate – and one that our nation could be proud of for generations, indeed centuries, to come.

“Our nation made a promise in our Declaration of Independence. Our nation has not always met that promise, and, indeed, we have struggled to realize the reality of that promise. In my lifetime, Martin Luther King, Jr. brought that compellingly to America's attention. In his lifetime, the President that the Majority Leader in this House, just last week heralded as one of the great figures, the great giants in American History, Abraham Lincoln, called the attention of his generation to the gulf between the promise and the practice in America. It resulted in a war in which we lost more lives in America than any other war in which we’ve been involved – the Civil War. It’s sad that we had to fight. It’s sad that we had to lose lives. But we redeemed, to some degree, the promise of treating people based upon the content of their character.”