Governor Brown Draws on Personal Story to Plead for Equity

"It’s true that i carry with me every single day privilege of white skin and i don’t know what its like to experience racism," Governor Kate Brown told graduating students of Willamette University.

"But I do know however, know what its like to be terrified going to work every single day that i might lose my job because somebody might discover that my partner was a woman."

Brown was delivering the commencement address and drew on her own personal experiences to urge the students to strive for equity, to avoid labeling people.

"I know what its like to be treated differently and paid less, substantially less ,than man even though I knew that I was doing a better job," she told them.

She then talked about the day that would be the highlight of anyone's career - being sworn in as governor - and the one aspect that seemed to take away from the experience.

"On the day that I was sworn in as Oregon’s 38th governor, I experienced what it was like to be labeled, to have my first two decades of public service eclipsed by a single phrase - the nation’s first openly bisexual governor," she said. "It was a phrase that appeared after my name in virtually every single headline around the world."

She urged the students to strive for better.

"I am sure that there are some of you out there today who over the course of your lives have experienced stereotyping, discrimination or fear that interferes with your ability to leave openly and with dignity," she said. "This should not happen anywhere.

"Everyone of us should have the right to live with dignity."