In a speech given on the Senator floor
on Wednesday, Utah Senator Orrin Hatch, a Republican, talked about
LGBT youth suicide prevention, saying that he timed his speech to
coincide with Pride month.
Hatch told his Senate colleagues that
suicide among LGBT youth is “particularly acute” and that they
“experience bullying and discrimination at every turn.”
“That's why today, in honor of Pride
month, I wish to devote a significant portion of my remarks to them –
my young friends in the LGBT community,” Hatch said.
“No one should feel less because of
their orientation. They deserve our unwavering love and support. They
deserve our validation and the assurance that not only is there a
place for them in this society but that it is far better off because
of them. These young people need us and we desperately need them.”
“We all have family or loved ones who
feel marginalized because of gender identity or sexual orientation,
and we need to be there for them.”
“Regardless of where you stand on the
cultural issues of the day, whether you are a religious conservative,
a secular liberal, or somewhere in between, we all have a special
duty to each other. That duty is to treat one another with dignity
and respect. It is not simply to tolerate but to love,” he
added.
Hatch called for passage of the
National Suicide Hotline Improvement Act, legislation which would
create a three-digit number to reach the national suicide prevention
hotline. The bill, approved by the Senate, is currently in the
House.
The seven-term senator announced
earlier this year that he would not seek re-election.
Hatch, a Mormon, has previously
supported the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which prohibited
federal agencies from recognizing the legal marriages of gay and
lesbian couples. More recently, he praised the Supreme Court's
ruling siding with a Colorado baker who refused to make a cake for a
male gay couple.
(Related: Supreme
Court narrowly sides with baker who refused gay couple.)