Pelosi: 'This Pride Month, Let Us Stand Up and Speak Out for Equality and Fairness for All'

June 24, 2004

Washington, D.C. -- House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi released the following statement today on this weekend's 34th San Francisco Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender (LGBT) Pride Celebration:

"This weekend is the 34th annual San Francisco Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Celebration, a time to celebrate San Francisco's proud history of advocacy for equal rights for LGBT persons and to recognize the contributions of the LGBT community.

"San Francisco is blessed with a large and vibrant LGBT community and has a strong history of advocacy for equal rights for all. That history is the result of respect ­- respect for the contributions of our LGBT community, and respect for the contributions of all of the many communities that make our city great.

"Since last year's Pride celebration, we have made progress in the fight to secure civil rights and basic protections for LGBT Americans, especially in California. Serious work remains, however, to protect LGBT individuals from workplace discrimination and hate-related crimes, to provide immigration benefits to same-sex couples, to fully fund HIV/AIDS programs domestically and internationally, and to defeat a mean-spirited constitutional amendment that would enshrine discrimination in our Constitution.

"Just this week, President Bush exaggerated his commitment to HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment, praising programs that he has consistently underfunded in his budgets. During the same speech, he committed to provide some extra money for the AIDS Drug Assistance Program, but proposed to take those funds from another part of the health care safety net. We need leaders who are truly committed to making adequate funding for HIV/AIDS a priority, not ones who merely claim to do so. And we need leaders who understand that discrimination has no place in our country, not ones who try to divide the American people for political purposes.

"This Pride Month, let us stand up and speak out for equality and fairness for all."

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