Public Advocacy for the Gender Variant
and Transgender Community in Illinois

The vision of Illinois Gender Advocates
is to create a community that celebrates the inherent worth and dignity of every person, regardless gender identity or gender expression.

We believe that all people should share equally in the civil rights guaranteed to everyone under our nation's Constitution, and we will be a lead organization in Illinois proactively advocating for the rights of our community.

For a copy of our brochure in pdf format, click here
Illinois Gender Advocates is a nonprofit, 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to achieving equal human and civil rights gender minorities, including transgender, intersex, and other gender variant members of our society who are often singled out for discrimination. We support all minorities in the struggle for equal rights. The Mission is to advocate for gender variant people, including but not limited to transgendered people, by means of educating the general public and acting as an advocate for the rights of the gender variant in public and private forums. We have two areas of focus: Legal and legislative advocacy, and advocacy for the rights of transgender and gender variant youth.

Membership in Illinois Gender Advocates is open to all. We welcome everyone who believes in the importance of achieving equal rights for gender variant people. Our members include all sexual orientations and gender identities. Those who identify as transgendered represent all aspects of the transgender spectrum: crossdressers and transsexuals, transgender men and transgender women, friends and family.

Find out how to join IGA, please click here

Diversity is important to us! Everyone is entitled to equal civil and human rights. Discrimination, harassment, hatred and violence against one part of our community affects us all. We strongly believe in the principle stated by John F. Kennedy,

"The rights of every person are diminished when the rights of one are threatened."

 The Goals of Illinois Gender Advocates

  1. To monitor national, state and local legislation, as well as administrative, regulatory, and executive actions, that impact on gender variant related issues and concerns of gender variant people;
  2. To establish liaisons with human rights organizations, including but not limited to sexual minority and gender variant organizations;
  3. To work to educate society by means of public speaking, awareness campaigns, forums, media relations, and other communication programs;
  4. To foster and diversity within Illinois Gender Advocates
  5. To take other actions as necessary that are consistent with the mission.

Because of our efforts

  • Chicago City Council added gender identity to the Chicago Human Rights Ordinance in 2002
  • Cook County Board added gender identity to the Cook County Human Rights Ordinance in 2002.
  • It has been illegal to discriminate on the basis of gender identity in Evanston (1997) and DeKalb (2000).
  • Legislation pending in Springfield to amend the Illinois Human Rights Act includes gender identity.
  • Elected officials from Illinois, including Members of Congress, have publicly stated their committment to preventing discrimination against gender variant people.

Documentation project

  • Documenting hate crimes and discrimination against gender variant people has been an ongoing project since 1995.
  • The information is obtained by written surveys and personal interviews, and published in annual reports, available on line or by contacting us. All identities are held confidential.
  • If you have been victimized because of your gender identity, please let us know.
  • We can help find you resources, and you will help strengthen our position for amending or enacting new laws.

To find out more about our documentation project, please click here

Illinois Gender Advocates believes that by doing the following we can achieve our goals and objectives.

          • Education
          • Documentation
          • Research
          • Lobbying
          • Communication

We welcome you to join us in any
or all of these efforts!
To find out more about joining, contributing or volunteering for IGA, please click here

Please contact us at IGA@genderadvocates.org

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