ARTICLES

Susan Davis Gets Close with Bisexuals

Her Exact Words in Mission Valley

Editor: This is a transcript of Susan Davis plenary speech at North American Conference on Bisexuality, Saturday, August 23, 2003 at the Radisson Hotel (Mission Valley):

"I just want to thank you all for inviting me to join you this morning. It's a pleasure to look out and see everybody. I hope you're going to enjoy your time here, and we're particularly pleased to have you in San Diego.

"One thing that I always wanted to ... I'm just curious, too: How many people have never been to San Diego before? (show of hands) Oh, that's great! And how many of you are San Diegans? (show of hands) Californians? (show of hands) Outside California? (show of hands) Okay.

"Wonderful. It's good to have you with us, particularly people from outside the area. We want you to come, enjoy yourself, spend a lot of money (laughter). Go to the Zoo, and Sea World, the Gaslamp, Hillcrest, all our wonderful, wonderful attractions here in San Diego. We're just delighted that you're here, and we want your business, so enjoy yourself.

"I'm very happy to note that you have many, many, several hundred registrants for this meeting today in the district, and we certainly hope that the organizers and the presenters will be very pleased by your attendance.

"I also should tell you that we actually had a number of calls in my office this last week because people were concerned that I was going to be here today and that I was going to be welcoming you. And I particularly want to thank the gentleman in my office, Luis, who answered most of those calls, for all his time and attention to it. Some silly calls, but, you know, people were concerned, so ... (applause). I'm happy to be here. A lot of those calls were coming from well outside the district, well outside the state of California. People can get organized, as we know, around a lot of issues.

"Perhaps I might just state to those people from California that I hope you're going to be voting no on the recall. And I certainly hope that you will find San Diego to be the very open and the respectful place that I believe it is. It's a community that believes diversity in its many forms is something that must be embraced, that within our differences lie our strengths, and that when we unite, we accomplish more than when we are divided. Working together, I know that we can achieve anything.

"The communities of Hillcrest, Mission Hills, University Heights, Talmadge and my own neighborhood of Kensington are all communities that embrace our LGBT neighbors and make up the heart of my Congressional district.

"Evidence of our region's progressiveness is seen in San Diego's recent addition of 'transgender' to our city's Human Dignity Ordinance (applause). And from your applause I can tell that a number of you here today really have had a hand in that victory. Congratulations to you, and I want to thank you for your efforts. This step forward is a step forward for all of San Diego, not just its transgender community. One of the great things about gatherings like this one is that it provides an opportunity for dialogue, information sharing and coordination.

"And I'm told that we have representatives ... from throughout the U.S., Canada, and I know we had a number of people from Mexico who wanted to participate in this event, and unfortunately I think quite a number of them were not able to do that because of some of the difficulties today of getting visas very quickly.

"I hope that San Diego's successes will prove instructive to the district, to all of you that are here today, and that we can put some of the ideas that have worked elsewhere to work here in San Diego. And again, we know that working together, we can achieve anything.

"On a related note I wanted to just ask all of you to work with me and my colleagues in the Congress to support some of the legislation that is of critical importance to the bisexual community. While this summer we have seen many advances in the rights of the LGBT community, a lot of the work remains to be done, especially at the federal level. I'm a proud sponsor of legislation that would end discrimination based on sexual orientation in the workplace (applause), that would make hate crimes on the basis of sexual orientation a federal crime (applause), that would unify couples separated by our country's immigration policies (applause, cheers), and a bill that would extend domestic partner benefits to federal employees (applause, cheers).

"These bills, as you know, will be important steps forward for the bisexual community, and when you return to your homes at the end of the weekend, I hope you will spread that word to your own representatives and a handful of others that built on the recent success at the judicial, state and local levels. My colleagues and I need grassroots support to see these bills become law, and I know again, working together, we can achieve anything.

"I wanted to thank you for allowing me to share time with you. I hope you will certainly be active in your communities. That's very, very important, and I know that you will take away from these many sessions over the weekend good thoughts, good in-depth understandings, and certainly new friends. Thank you very, very much."

TOP