Illinois Transgender Rights Measure

Press Release: The Fight for Transgender Equality Continues. Submitted by NTAC 11/04.

Transgender Community Press Release

Submit your press releases, event announcements, news articles or related tg community information - Press Release Submissions

For Immediate Release: January 26, 2005
From: The National Transgender Advocacy Coalition (NTAC)
Contacts: Media Director, Robyn Walters, Seattle, Washington
                NTAC Chair, Vanessa Edwards Foster; Houston, Texas
Contact Email: ntacmedia@aol.com
                         media@ntac.org
Contact Phone: 832-483-9901
                   360-434-3042
Website: http://www.ntac.org/

Illinois Outlaws Gender Identity Discrimination, Alameda County, Too

With Governor Rod Blagojevich’s signature, Equality Illinois and other GLBT activists capped a thirty year effort to end legal discrimination against GLBT people to an end. The Illinois Senate passed a nondiscrimination bill covering gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and the transgendered on January 11^th. The House followed suit the next day, sending the bill to Governor Rod Blagojevich for his expected signature. The governor signed the measure into law on January 21^st. The bill was first introduced in 1974 and was first passed by the Illinois House of Representatives in 1993.

The National Transgender Advocacy Coalition offers its congratulations to the state of Illinois for choosing fairness and equality for all of its citizens.

Illinois becomes the 5^th state to prohibit discrimination against transgender individuals and the 15^th to protect gays and bisexuals. The bill expands existing coverage of protection against discrimination in employment, housing, public accommodations or credit to include sexual orientation. The bill’s definition of sexual orientation includes gender identity.

"We are ecstatic that the Illinois General Assembly has finally voted to ban discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity,” said Rick Garcia, Executive Director of Equality Illinois. “It has been a long and hard battle but we finally persevered.”

This win underscores the importance of state and local efforts to secure equal treatment for the GLBT community. The last U.S. Congress failed again to pass nondiscrimination legislation. Chances for passage of such national legislation appear even less likely in the current session of Congress with some of the opinion that inclusion of transgender protection makes passage even more difficult.

Equality Illinois has shown that transgender inclusion need not be the kiss of death. “Up until the week of the final vote,” Garcia added, “there were suggestions that we remove gender identity from the legislation. We steadfastly refused. And it overwhelmingly passed. This is what I am proudest of -- we refused to leave anyone behind."

Predictably, there have been efforts to derail the Illinois stance of fairness for all. Peter Barbera Executive Director of the anti-gay Illinois Family Institute argues that the new law would ban churches from discriminating against homosexuals. ”Gov. Blagojevich is signing away the First Amendment freedoms of churches and anyone who disagrees with homosexuality,” said Barbera.

“Since when do religious pundits get to interpret the constitution or legislative law based solely on their sect’s beliefs?” responded NTAC chair, Vanessa Edwards Foster. "We’re a pluralistic society, and even within Christianity there are various perspectives that distinguish each from other faiths. Christ, by his example, taught tolerance and love.”

“When critics reach for these excuses, it’s a cop-out,” Foster added. “They’re simply searching for ways to validate their intolerance. It’s very disingenuous.”

In related news, the Board of Supervisors of Alameda County, California, passed a resolution yesterday that prohibits gender identity discrimination in county employment, county services, and county contracting. This first step toward protecting all Alameda county transgender and intersex citizens was passed 4 0 despite an outpouring of negative comments from those who wish to retain legal discrimination.

Founded in 1999, NTAC - the National Transgender Advocacy Coalition - is a §501(c)(4) civil rights organization working to establish and maintain the right of all transgendered, intersexed, and gender-variant people to live and work without fear of violence or discrimination

Email us at: webmaster@tgguide.com