To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to provide a tax credit for medical research related to developing qualified infectious disease products.

Mr. Speaker, on October 9 I delivered a speech in the House regarding, among other things, my involvement in advocating for civil rights protections for transgender individuals. Following those remarks, I inadvertently failed to submit for the Record several documents to which I had made reference during the speech, specifically excerpts from testimony I gave before an Education and Labor Committee subcommittee last month in support of including full transgender protection in the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, and from two other speeches addressing transgender issues that I offered during previous debates on the House floor. In order to give a fuller picture of my views on these important topics, I ask that the documents be printed here.

Excerpt From Testimony of U.S. Rep. Barney Frank, Subcommittee on

Health, Employment, Labor and Pensions, ``The Employment Non-

Discrimination Act, H.R. 2015,'' September 5, 2007

Mr. FRANK of Massachusetts. . . . And then we have the

issue that my colleague so ably discussed of the

transgender--and I understand that this is a new issue for

people. There are people who were born with the physical

characteristics of one sex who strongly identify with the

other. Some of them have a physical change, some of them

don't. Let me make a plea to all of my colleagues--these are

people--think what it must be like to be born with that set

of feelings. Think what it must be like, think what stress--

what agony you go through--to defy society's conventions to

the extent where you make that kind of a statement. This is

something people are driven to do. Is there any reason why

any of us should make the lives of those people more

difficult than they already are?

Obviously these are people who are coping and things are

getting better. Things are better in many ways. When I was

younger, a lot of things were difficult that are less

difficult today. But what we say here is if someone has these

feelings--if someone is born with one set of characteristics

and strongly identifies the other way--should you fire him?

You deny him a promotion? You say no matter how good your job

is, that makes me uneasy so out you go. That we say in here

you can make rules that those people have to abide by. That

they dress in a gender consistent way . . .

There is another issue we . . . have to talk about. What

happens when they're all in the shower together--you know you

can segregate bathrooms, but in showers it's a little

difficult. This says no, people don't have the right to go

into open places where people are unclothed in a way that's

to embarrass people. That we talk about an accommodation,

again people will say, ``well you didn't do that well

enough.'' There's room for some fine-tuning there, but on a

fundamental principle--particularly for those people who are

themselves made the most uneasy by the transgender issue--and

I must say having worked with a lot of transgender people, I

would tell my friends you get over it pretty quickly. Because

what you find out is you're dealing with human beings like

all the rest of us--normal human beings who have the same

emotions and needs and strengths and weaknesses all of us

have. But for those who are not yet at the point of comfort

with them, do we really feel driven to make life harder for

these people?

By the way, I just want to deal with this choice issue. No

one I believe in the history of the world has said, ``you

know what, life's too easy. I think although I was born a

woman I'm going to act like a man. I think that would be a

real lark. I think I'll just go through life that way and

invite physical abuse and invite all kinds of ridicule.''

So that's all we're saying. And let me say here--a final

appeal--if there's any institution that ought to

understand this it's here. Let me tell you what I know.

This institution--we as Members--are very well served by a

large number of gay and lesbian employees. And many of my

colleagues on the Republican side know that and have, to

their credit, employed them.

I wouldn't have said this a couple of years ago, but after

the recent incident it's now public. For years the Clerk of

this House was a gay man, a Republican named Jeff Trandahl,

whose orientation became public because he behaved in a very

honorable and admired way in the issue of our former

colleague, Mr. Foley. And the Ethics Committee saluted Mr.

Trandahl. You know, Jeff Trandahl is an example and I know

Jeff well and he's a friend whom I respect and admire and

given the role he played, how much easier it would have

been--maybe some troubles could have been avoided if there

were legal protections that he and others would have had so

they would not be subject to prejudice.

I'll acknowledge--yes--as Mike Carney's example will show

and my own example will show--people say ``well you know some

of these gay people are misbehaving.'' Yeah, living a life

that you were trying to hide from others is not a

prescription for model behavior. And you do dumb things in

the closet sometimes. It's not an excuse. It's your fault

when you do them. But it's in society's interest to diminish

that pressure. And you can do that today. Thank you.