Transgender issues and the state budget impasse took center stage at the State of the State panel, part of Equality Illinois' 2016 EqualityCon institute held May 13-14 at the University of Illinois ( UIC ) Student Center.
Participants state Sen. Daniel Biss ( D ), Voices for Illinois Children Director of Policy and Advocacy Emily Miller, and National Association of Social Workers Director of Legislative Affairs Kyle Hillman were joined by the mother of a transgender child.
She requested anonymity so Windy City Times provided the name "Rose Tyler."
In terms of the appetite of the Illinois General Assembly to take on social justice and transgender issues, in particular, Biss responded that "there are still interests and, broadly speaking, a fairly supportive legislature but there is still really important education which has not been done."
By example, he cited the bill that would have allowed transgender individuals to change their gender markers on their birth certificates without undergoing gender-confirmation surgery "which got out of committee but didn't get passed. There is one bad bathroom bill that was not called for a vote. If it had, it might have been within spitting distance of passage."
Hillman added that he felt there are some in the General Assembly who feel as if "we gave you marriage equality. We're done."
He noted that education regarding transgender issues was vital both to combat that malaise and for another even more concerning reason.
"There is a group that is using fear to try and undo the advances we have been able to make," he said. "You talk to legislators who don't understand the trans community and you have this opposition that is using fear to make people scared of the ramifications of giving the trans community more rights."
Miller cited one such fear tactic that was used to derail passage of the birth certificate bill.
"The opposition argument that caught the most traction was this fear that people would change their birth certificates back and forth to avoid being trapped in the criminal justice system," she said. "Those kind of arguments take hold. There's a certain level of inoculation that must be done in terms of education for these [legislators]."
Tyler added that education was also needed outside of the legislative body. However, that goal presents its own challenges owing to the sinister nature of the organizations fighting to strip transgender individuals of their rights.
"I used to openly use my name and my child's name in our school district but, as recently as the last five months, I've spoken at a school and I've seen someone at the back of the room videotaping me," she said. "I know for a fact that it is someone from Parents for Privacy which is one of the groups that, with the Thomas More Society and the Alliance Defending Freedom, sued District 211. They're not there to learn. They are there to put my face on their page and call me a child abuser."
Tyler suggested that having allies speaking out for transgender rights or signing witness slips is a powerful and needed combatant.
"The other side is very well organized," she said. "They galvanize a huge number of people and then it looks to legislators like only trans parents are fighting. We need the numbers. Anyone who wants to be an advocate needs to get their name on an email list so we can get more signatures quickly."
"The people that are opposing these transgender bills are the same people that opposed every bill for equality," Biss said. "Right now transgender issues are their wedge to try to divide society up. We need more advocates. Legislators need the education and so does the general public."
When it comes to mountains to climb, the approval of an Illinois state budget looks just as challenging. While it does not face opposition from hate groups so much as an internal battle between competing ideologies, the fallout has been devastating,
"We have survived with a patchwork of aid and we have agreed on stop-gap measures such as releasing funds for higher education but none of that really works for the bigger picture," Biss said. "The governor has a set of policy demands that are very important to him and he wants them to be part of the budget negotiations. My view is that we should have a conversation but it is going to be hard to reach agreement on them. There has been a meta-fight that hasn't been resolved and, while we stare at each other waiting for that fight to somehow resolve itself, the State is being destroyed."
"Even if we agree to everything the governor wants, there is no money to put into a budget to pay for it," Miller added.
"The longer this goes on, the more that political calculations take over the reality of people's needs," Biss said. "If we don't get a budget in the next couple of weeks, then I don't know that we get one during the governor's term. What does that mean for our social services, higher education or any of our safety net programs?"
"What has happened and continues to happen at Chicago State [University] is the State has said through a lack of action that, 'We do not care whether low income Black people gave access to higher education or access to increasing their wage potential or improving the lives of their families,'" Miller noted. "That's just wrong."
For more information, visit EqualityIllinois.us.
