SPRINGFIELD – The end of sex segregation in bathrooms and showers is working its way through the state of Illinois – at least that's how it appears today.
Despite lining up 29 co-sponsors from both Republican and Democrat aisle sides, State Rep. Tom Morrison's (R-Palatine) proposal to designate bathrooms in public schools to be occupied exclusively by one sex was sent down to subcommittee Tuesday. With committee deadlines looming at the end of this week, that move – without a hearing or considering any testimony – is likely to squelch any legislative effort to deal with an ongoing controversy statewide.
In the meantime, high school after high school throughout Illinois is being forced to allow students of one sex full access to bathrooms and showers of the other sex, if a student declares he or she is transgender.
Morrison's bill would have set aside single occupancy restrooms for those students identifying themselves as transgender.
Immediately after the Illinois House Human Services Committee "put a brick" on Morrison's bill, John Knight, Director, of the ACLU's LGBT and HIV Project issued the following statement:
We are hopeful that this will mark a quiet end to this discriminatory legislation. As a result of public discussion of this misguided proposal, many schools across the state — schools that already adopted and implemented welcoming and affirming policies for their students who are transgender — have feared about the future of their students. This is unfortunate.
Schools are making these policies work in all parts of the state, making life easier and reducing the opportunities for harassment and discrimination for students who are transgender. We need to expand such policies, not adopt a statewide, discriminatory bill.
But while the schools working through the policies are opening their bathrooms and showers to be occupied by both natural sex and transgender students, life is not becoming easier for students that seek privacy from other sexes.
That concern was the basis for Rep. Tom Morrison's HB 4474, as in his northwest suburban district, the issue has already created controversy.
Morrison was not alone in his concerns. Agreeing with Morrison were House colleagues Mary E. Flowers, Sheri Jesiel, Mark Batinick, Dwight Kay, Jeanne M Ives,Bill Mitchell, John M. Cabello, Reginald Phillips, John D. Anthony, Barbara Wheeler, C.D. Davidsmeyer, Keith R. Wheeler, David B. Reis, Adam Brown, Charles Meier, Randy E. Frese, Joe Sosnowski, Terri Bryant, Avery Bourne, John Cavaletto, Anthony DeLuca, Michael W. Tryon, Tim Butler, Brandon W. Phelps, Jerry Costello, II and John Bradley.
Who would have imagined we’d come to a time when the person in the bathroom stall next to us could be a man or a woman, and we have nothing to say about it? Is modesty or privacy a thing of the past?
Why must be all succumb to the sexuality issues other people have? What has the average person done to be terrorized like this?
I agree with Rep. Morrison. I’m just terribly sad he had to introduce it. Someday this will come back to haunt the Illinois legislature.
Take a look at HB 6073 – Birth Certificate Sex Designation bill. It will make it easier for a transgender to officially change sec on the birth certificate.
What’s the corrupt human services committee afraid of??
Afraid if the general assembly has a chance to vote on it, it will pass and the voters will have a representative govt; instead of the corrupt, oppressive, tyrannical organized crime we have now!
So, men who don’t like being men are allowed to use restrooms with women only, but actual women are not allowed to use restrooms with women only. Curiouser and curiouser. Could someone explain to me why gender-dysphoric persons should notshould be compelled to use restrooms with those whose sex they don’t share.
Your school district takes Federal money, you get Federal intervention with it.
What do they expect?
Gender confusion is a disorder similar to a “dangerously thin” person suffering anorexia who looks in the mirror and thinks they are “overweight. The gender confused looks in the mirror and sees a person of the opposite sex, its a delusion disorder. Facts not political ideology determine reality. The notion that a person’s maleness or femaleness is different than what nature assigned to them biologically is absurd. Those pesky XY and XX chromosomes make it impossible to “transition” to another sex. Use the restroom appropriate for your biological sex and stop whining about it. Those with a gender confusion mental disorder need therapy, don’t grant an acceptance of their delusion. Forget the state, we don’t have to obey immoral and unjust law.
Why do these people insist that everyone has to cater to their delusions? It is not a “civil right” to insist that all of society has to put up with people who are mentally ill to the point that they think they are something they are not, just like we wouldn’t brook any nonsense from the homeless guy muttering that he was Napoleon. People who insist on using toilet facilities with the “wrong plumbing” are (at best) suffering from mental illness, and (at worst) engaged in perversion and/or seeking to take sexual advantage against women.