PRESS CONFERENCE NOTICE
May 1, 2000, 8:30 a.m.
Ann Sather's Restaurant
929 W. Belmont, Chicago

Chicago, IL --- Cook County State's Attorney Richard A. Devine, Cook County Commissioner Mike Quigley, Chicago Alderman Billy Ocasio, and Mary Morten from Chicago's Office of Violence Prevention will participate in a press conference to be held May 1, 8:30 a.m., at Ann Sather's, 929 W. Belmont in Chicago, highlighting the continuing problem of discrimination and violence based on actual or perceived sexual and gender nonconformity.

It's Time, Illinois, the state's leading political action and public advocacy organization for the gender variant and transgender community, will release its 5th annual report on discrimination and hate crimes against gender variant people in Illinois at the press conference.

The new report includes 24 cases, ranging all the way from discrimination in a public accommodation to murder. It's Time Illinois is based in the Chicago metropolitan area, and most of the cases in the report took place in Chicago and Cook County.

Since It's Time Illinois began collecting information in 1995 about discrimination against gender variant men and women, it has documented 66 separate cases, including approximately 80 incidents of violence and other discriminatory acts. In every case, a person was made - either through violence or through the denial of employment, housing, or public accommodations - to feel like a second class citizen merely because their life or appearance did not conform to traditional expectations for their gender.

IT'S TIME, ILLINOIS!
Press Conference On Discrimination And Violence
Monday, May 1 , 2000, 8:30 a.m.
Ann Sather's Restaurant, 929 W. Belmont, Chicago

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