What do the towns of Ypsilanti, York, Iowa City, Olympia, and Lexington have that Chicago doesn't? What do Jefferson County, Kentucky and Benton County, Oregon have that Cook County doesn't? What does Minnesota have that Illinois doesn't? What did Boulder city council pass into law last month that frankly scares the pants off one of the most vocal advocates for gay and lesbian rights in Congress? What did these hotbeds of radicalism do that supposedly more progressive locales have not yet dared to even propose? I'll give you a hint. About a month ago, the Policy Institute of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force issued a report called Legislating Equality. In this eye-opening report, the Policy Institute examines the progress that has been made over the past 30 years in enacting laws to protect our rights as gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered citizens of this country. The progress that we as a people have made over the past few years is phenomenal. Over 38% of the population of the United States live in jurisdictions, which protect their rights to hold a job regardless of sexual orientation. Here in the State of Illinois the numbers are higher with over 44% of the people being covered by laws specifying illegal discrimination based on sexual orientation. Feel pretty good about that? You can be proud of the advances we have made, but it's not good enough. Turn the numbers around and you see that 62% of us can be fired, not hired, passed over, or generally shit upon because we are gay or lesbian. Even in our own state, well over half of our people are not protected by law. Illinois should be a leader, if not among the United States, then at least in the Midwest. What's wrong with us? |
So much for the good news. Here's the bad. If you look at those laws that protect our community from discrimination, only a few of them protect gender variant people. The sad truth is in the numbers… across the nation, 96% of us live in places where it is perfectly legal to discriminate against us on the basis of our gender expression. In Illinois, the situation is even worse, if that is possible, with 99.4% of the population living in areas not protected from this form of discrimination. What does this mean? Are we talking about a handful of trannies who might be fired for following the medical establishment's strict "Benjamin Standard of Care", which dictates a minimum one year living full time in one's new gender role before surgery is allowed? Or those who risk losing careers and families by daring to be true to themselves after years of struggling for self-acceptance, only to find that some sexually-insecure straight guy, bible-thumping bigot, or lesbian separatist does not want to accept them? No… all of you are affected by the lack of protection of your gender expression. In the records of the Chicago Commission on Human Relations are dozens of cases of lesbians and gay men who have been discriminated against on the job, not because of who they are sleeping with, but because of their gender expression. Women who are "too masculine," men who are "too effeminate." We even have seen the complaint of a woman who was fired for not being feminine enough. Her crime… she did not wear enough make-up to work. She was told, "I hired you with make-up, and I expect you to wear make-up." Unfortunately, many of these are hard to prosecute because they don't easily fit within the categories set up by current ordinances. |
The great City of Chicago has had nondiscrimination laws on the books since 1988… but not for gender variant people. The vast Cook County has had a similar law since 1993… but not for gender variant people. Only Evanston cares enough about the humanity of her 74,000 residents to provide them with protection. In the rest of Illinois, we are non-people as far as the laws are concerned. That's why State Rep. Larry McKeon included gender identity within the definition of sexual orientation in the Human Rights Bill (HB474). That's why It's Time, Illinois is working with the Commission on Human Relations to amend the Chicago Ordinance. That's why Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky became the first Member of Congress to add gender identity to her own EEO policy. We're making progress, but it is not good enough or fast enough. When 96% of the people in this country can still be fired, denied entry into a nightclub, harassed by their landlord until they leave, or left to die on the street because some paramedic doesn't care for how she expresses her gender, then we are in deep shit. The whole country is in deep shit. Because, as long as human rights are denied to even one person, none of us can be truly free. Oh, and in case you haven't guessed already, all those hotbeds of radicalism in the opening paragraph have laws protecting the rights of gender variant people… and they survived to tell about it! |
Photo by Israel Wright, Copyright 2000, Lambda Publications,
Chicago