News & Commentary

Just a decade ago, Illinois signed into law the right to marry for gay and lesbian couples. 

A state report recently found that DCFS fails to meet the needs of LGBTQIA youth in their care. Heidi Dalenberg recently testified in a committee on a way forward for the agency.

Today, Governor JB Pritzker signed House Bill 1063 into law, which ends criminal penalties for those living with HIV in Illinois, effective immediately. Illinois is now the second state in the country to take this crucial action after Texas.

Pride month is a time to step back and appreciate the progress we have seen for LGBTQ+ people in Illinois—and to identity the urgent issues and harms still facing these communities. Lack of access to stable housing affects so many people, and anti-LGBTQ+ housing discrimination has long been a barrier to the safety and welfare of queer and transgender people. And in the midst of an ongoing pandemic, stable housing is more important than ever.

Tania Cordova grew up in Chicago’s Little Village neighborhood after emigrating from Mexico in 1985. As a transgender woman, Tania’s memories of the early 90’s are full of traumatic encounters with Chicago police. “I used to go to ‘Chicks’ — a trans nightclub — on Broadway and Clark. The police would arrest everyone transgender anywhere near the club for solicitation.”She was taken to the Belmont police station and searched by male officers. “It was so scary an

The statement below can be attributed to Ghirlandi Guidetti, LGBTQ & HIV Project Staff Attorney, ACLU of Illinois: “At today’s hearing, DCFS officials offered more excuses for its inadequate care for LGBTQ youth, as confirmed by the Auditor’s report. Rather than accept any responsibility for its failures – a prerequisite for any meaningful change – the Department suggested things are different now, and made more promises for the future.  The truth is that the experiences of LGBTQ youth in care are no better today than they were during the audit. Our youth deserve better than promises of future change.”

A federal court in Southern Illinois today denied the Illinois Department of Corrections’ request to dismiss a class-action lawsuit, Monroe v. Jeffreys, filed by five transgender women detained in Illinois prisons to reform the abysmal medical treatment that they and more than one hundred other transgender prisoners receive from the Department in its facilities throughout the state. In 2019, U.S. District Court Chief Judge Nancy Rosenstengel ordered the Illinois Department of Corrections to overhaul its practices and policies for providing treatment to prisoners with gender dysphoria. Despite the Court’s order, the State has not yet implemented the great bulk of the changes the Court ordered.  In response to the decision, John Knight, Director of the LGBTQ & HIV Project at the ACLU of Illinois, issued the following statement: “The Illinois Department of Corrections was given a clear path forward by the Court more than a year ago – a path that would provide the basic medical care that transgender people who have gender dysphoria desperately need. After months of dragging their feet and ignoring the clear needs of our clients in their custody, the State instead sought to get out of the lawsuit, arguing that they were still planning and working toward providing the life-saving care that our clients urgently require. That is wholly inadequate for our clients, who continue to endure significant harm from existing Department policies. We are pleased the Court soundly rejected the State’s effort to escape its constitutional duty to promptly reform its health care system and hope to have a chance soon to prove our case at trial.”

Today, we celebrate President Biden’s executive order lifting the ban on transgender service members in the military. The President’s action reverses the cruel and arbitrary ban imposed by the previous administration nearly four years ago. 

Kate Holt, a Springfield woman, filed a complaint last week charging that the state’s capitol is violating state law by denying insurance coverage for physician-directed care for employees who are transgender. The charge recounts how Ms. Holt was denied coverage for medication prescribed by her physician - medication covered for other employees who are not transgender - after she was employed by the City of Springfield beginning in February 2020. The denial is a clear violation of Illinois’ Human Rights Act, according to the charge.