SPEECH OF DELEGATE ALBERT C. EISENBERG ON HUMAN AND CIVIL RIGHTS
I want to talk about human and civil rights, and later during Q&A we can go on to other things.
Virginia is the birthplace of the Constitution and our Bill of Rights. Every liberty we hold dear was born in this State. Yet, despite the 200 year history of these written promises, our State maintained slavery, enforced miscegenation laws and segregation, denied fair housing, erected thoughtless barriers to people with disabilities, turned their sights on immigrants, and launched an outspoken war against people's right to privacy within one's home and within one's own sacred relationship. Over the years, one by one, many, but certainly not all of these inhumanities, have fallen, either by enforceable law, common sense, or to what Lincoln described as the better angels of our nature, as we have become more enlightened, more tolerant, more humane. The frontiers of the worst prejudices have at least some cracks in the wall.
Yet, we've got much more work to do. The last frontiers of prejudice in this, the land of the free, have yet to disappear. The refugees, the asylum seekers, the immigrants that candidate Jerry Kilgore so despises, have not seen the barriers drop. Nor have those in the gay, lesbian, and transgender community-the latest group that the bigots in our society have chosen to persecute with a vengeance. The Virginia General Assembly is a place where too often the bigotry is bold, on full display, eager to refuse unrelated people the right to live together, to adopt children, and to decide their own household relationships, including same sex marriages. How on earth does a same sex marriage overturn others' relationships? Even in that hostile environment, we have had some successes. For example, we defeated an attempt to restore the awful VA Housing Development Authority rule that previously denied unrelated people the right to own property together. Those of us, elected or aspiring to be elected, I am sure are dedicated to the responsibility of tearing down this last wall of bigotry. And I can assure you we'll be heard.