Senator Cory Booker gives whole-hearted support for LGBT rights

by Lauren Dow
Journalism Intern

New Jersey Senator Cory Booker spoke to the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Caucus today with passion. He came to the stage shouting because the previous speaker brought the house down with her exclamations against Donald trump.

Booker told the caucus, "every American should have access to full citizenship rights." Senator Booker is the first black Senator from his state and served as Newark, New Jersey’s Mayor before he was elected to the senate.

Cory Booker drew on the knowledge his parent instilled in him, of the American people standing together to support one another. They told him that many people marched for black rights: LGBT, white and Jewish alike marched for his (Booker's) rights, his parents explained that to him, "we should have a shame hanging over our country that we are denying equal rights to LGBT Americans."

Booker, is unwilling to settle for an unequal America, telling the crowd, “I’m grateful…but it is not enough.”

Senator Cory Booker’s unwillingness to “settle” is a cornerstone of his political career. His dedication to his constituents and their well-being earned him an article in The Week, that asked if he was America’s most overachieving mayor. Booker’s support of LGBT rights is an extension of that care.
The Senator launched into reading of “Sweet Honey in the Rock” (or “Ella’s Song”), expressing his belief that black rights and LGBT rights supporters must work together to gain equality. He said, “We who believe in freedom cannot rest, we who believe in freedom cannot rest until it comes.”
Booker told the caucus that Democrats must be fighting for the freedom to live without fear, discrimination, intimidation or violence perpetrated every day against LGBT brothers and sisters.
Senator Booker continued, "we have got to fight for that freedom, and in the fight for freedom there can be no rest. We have threats in this election."
Booker’s support for LGBT rights and his understanding that those rights are paramount to true equality was clear throughout his speech. He told the caucus, "Pence is an insult to America.” Booker Explained that Pence’s “overt, outrageous discrimination is unacceptable in this country.”

Then he told democrats, “I call upon you to help to wake the consciousness of everyone up. this is a cause of our country, we cannot rest, we must be relentless in the struggle and we must be intolerant of intolerance."
Booker, quoting Martin Luther King Jr., said, “injustice to anyone is a threat to justice everywhere. We have a threat of justice in our country and let us be patriots in this fight and not relent until the oath that people [is not] just words, is real for every American.

Booker asked the caucus to pledge with him, that “we will be a country with liberty and justice for all.”

Copyright – The Gayly – 7/28/16 @ 9:00 p.m. CDT