CHICAGO CAMPAIGN FOR TRANS ORDINANCE PICKS UP STEAM

By Gary Barlow

Staff writer

A renewed effort to expand Chicago's human rights ordinance to protect transgenders and others discriminated against on the basis of gender identity is gaining steam, according to advocates.

"We started the ball rolling and it's snowballing," said Miranda Stevens-Miller, of It's Time Illinois, the organization that is leading the effort.

ITI succeeded in getting the ordinance introduced in the City Council Sept. 27, 2000, with Alds. Billy Ocasio (26th Ward) and Bernard Hansen (44th Ward) as sponsors. But since then the ordinance has languished in the council's Human Relations Committee, chaired by Ocasio.

Stevens-Miller said a number of factors contributed to the delay in moving the ordinance forward.

"We met with the (city's) law department last August," Stevens-Miller said. "Everybody agreed on the language. The law department was supposed to get that back out in a few weeks. Then everything got put on hold because of Sept. 11."

But over the past two years, since ITI first proposed the ordinance, Stevens-Miller said city officials, including some in Mayor Richard M. Daley's office, have cited various reasons for not bringing the ordinance up for a council vote. Those "excuses," Stevens-Miller said, have included elections and other issues before the city.

Frustrated by the inaction, ITI recently focused on the mayor as the key to moving the ordinance. At Chicago Collegiate Pride Fest 2002 April 6, Stevens-Miller told 350 students that the ordinance "has been stuck in the mayor's office. We'd like you to help us un-stick it."

To accomplish that, Stevens-Miller urged the crowd to write letters to Daley demanding that the mayor push for passage of the ordinance, a call ITI also made in recent weeks to the city's entire GLBT community.

And, in the city's Commission on Human Relations, Bill Greaves, who heads the commission's Advisory Council on Gay and Lesbian Issues, said recently he's begun lobbying harder to move the ordinance.

"The commission is very cooperative and wants to get this passed," Stevens-Miller said.

The renewed push appears to be having an effect.

Ending one delay, the city's law department completed its review and OKed the ordinance's language April 17. Now, Stevens-Miller said, advocates want action and see no reason why the ordinance can't be passed soon.

"There are really no more major stumbling blocks," she said.

First, advocates must find out where their support is on the City Council.

"We did not really do any lobbying on the ordinance after it was introduced," Stevens-Miller said. "Getting the final wording was what we were waiting for."

The major issue involved in drafting the final wording was whether to outlaw discrimination based on gender identity and expression by redefining the category of "gender" in the current ordinance to include "a person's actual or perceived gender...whether or not that gender identity, appearance or behavior is different from that traditionally associated with the person's sex at birth."

But after much discussion, the proposed ordinance simply would add gender identity, including gender expression, as a protected category in the human rights ordinance, which already includes sexual orientation to protect gays and lesbians from discrimination.

That change more closely reflects the general trend in similar ordinances around the country, including those passed in such cities as Portland, Ore., New Orleans and Louisville, Ky.

With the wording agreed to, Stevens-Miller said ITI can start lobbying aldermen and counting votes.

"It's going to be a major education campaign," Stevens-Miller said. "We had at least 20 aldermen lined up (in 2000)."

A spokesperson for Ocasio said the alderman won't call for a vote "until we get a better indication that we have a chance for approval." That means being sure of at least 27 votes in favor of the ordinance, but Ocasio would rather have 35 to 40 positive votes lined up in case opposition surfaces and some aldermen change their votes.

The effort to sway Daley is a major part of the strategy to get those city council votes. Stevens-Miller said, "The mayor has been supportive." She believes if he actively lobbies aldermen to get behind the ordinance, its passage will be assured.

To increase the pressure, ITI has scheduled an April 26 press conference to release a report documenting discrimination based on gender identity and expression in Illinois. The report, Stevens-Miller said, shows why civil rights protections are needed. U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.), Illinois state Rep. Sara Feigenholtz (D-Chicago), Cook County Commissioner Mike Quigley (D) and CCHR chairman Clarence Wood are expected to lend their support to ITI's efforts at the press conference.