A passionate speech in defense of the trans community by Congressman Jamaal Bowman speaking to republicans who are targeting our trans brothers and sisters throughout America.
I just want to ask a simple question. Why can’t we leave trans people alone? Let them be who they are. Let them live their lives. Let’s stop discriminating against them simply because they are different from who we are, and different than what we understand.
Just because we don’t understand it doesn’t mean we shouldn’t support the transgender community and love them in the same way we should love all human beings.
They’re not bothering anyone. They want to go to school. They want to play sports. They want to hang out with their friends. They want to live their lives. Let them live their lives.
We have an ugly history of discriminating against people who are different than we are, throughout our time in this country, whether they are black, Latino, Asian, LGBTQ, poor, people with disabilities, women.
We have an ugly history of discrimination in this country. And now the trans community is a target. All they want to do is live their lives. Why are Republicans so uncomfortable with this? Let them be who they are.
That’s it. They’re not bothering you. They’re not taking your lunch money. They’re not criminalizing your community. They’re not engaging in gun violence. They just want to live and be happy like everyone else.
And they are contributing members to society, whether it’s through education, sports, the economy, or anything else. What the heck of who are we as Americans and as a human race, to be so darn uncomfortable with an individual, a group of people that’s different from who we are?
From the beginning of American history, as we got ourselves together, as we tried to, we invited people from all over the world to help us build a nation that we have now. And we continue to try to evolve into the nation that we’re capable of beating.
And no one should be left out of that, especially not the trans community, which is the most vulnerable community right now in our country.
I just want my Republican colleagues to just take a breath. Stop. Relax. The trans community isn’t bothering you. Let them live. Just like you want your friends and family to live and have freedom and have rights and have choice. Let the trans community have the same thing.
Thank you.