During a surprise Pride Month
appearance, Vice President Kamala Harris criticized state anti-LGBTQ
laws backed by Republicans.
According to the Washington Blade,
Harris spoke from the main stage of D.C.'s Capital Pride Festival on
Sunday.
Harris and her husband, second
gentleman Doug Emhoff, received thunderous applause when introduced
to the crowd.
“Happy Pride everyone!” Harris
told the crowd. “Oh, what a glorious day. Listen, we have so
much to celebrate, and we celebrate each other every day.”
“We celebrate the progress we have
made. And we celebrate the fact that we are in this to stand for what
we stand for and fight for what we stand for.”
Harris marked the sixth anniversary of
the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando, Florida. Forty-nine people
died and dozens more were injured when a lone gunman opened fire in
the gay nightclub on June 12, 2016. She also appeared to refer to a
foiled plot by white supremacists targeting a Pride event in Idaho.
“Because no one should fear going to
a nightclub for fear that a terrorist might try to take them down,”
Harris said. “No one should fear going to a Pride celebration
because of a white supremacist. No one should fear loving who they
love. Our children in Texas and Florida should not fear who they are.
Black and brown and women of color, transgender women cannot fear for
their lives.”
The vice president also criticized the
dozens of state bills introduced this year targeting the LGBTQ
community.
“We should not have to be dealing
with 300 laws in states around our country that are attacking our
LGBTQ+ brothers and sisters. For we know what we stand for and
therefore we know what we will fight for. And we will do what we have
always done in this movement, in this community, which is
collectively, we will continue to build unity. We will continue to
build coalitions.We will always be fueled by knowing we have so much
more in common than what separates us. We will be fueled by saying no
one will be made to fight alone. We will be fueled by knowing we are
all in this together. And we will fight with pride,” she said.
Harris last year became the first U.S.
vice president to participate in an LGBTQ Pride event when she and
her husband joined hundreds in D.C.'s Capital Pride Walk.