Brown: LGBT groups gear up against transgender restroom bill

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Advocates for Illinois’ LGBT community are pushing back aggressively against a suburban legislator’s proposal to restrict which restrooms and locker rooms transgender students can use.The bill introduced in January by Rep. Tom Morrison, R-Palatine, has mostly flown under the radar so far compared to higher profile legislative efforts to police bathrooms in South Dakota and North Carolina.

That may have something to do with Illinois’ Democrat-controlled Legislature having proven itself to be more friendly on gay and transgender rights than other states, which makes it unlikely Morrison’s proposal will advance.

But Michael Ziri, director of public policy for Equality Illinois, said the organization is taking nothing for granted and has geared up to keep the measure from gaining any traction.

Ziri said the proposal would put transgender students at further risk of harassment and abuse — a proven concern compared to the speculative fears of its proponents.

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Morrison’s bill would prohibit any “member of the male sex” from using a “pupil restroom or changing room” designated for the “exclusive use of the female sex”—or vice versa.It would also apply to students on overnight field trips to prevent transgender students from sharing a room with someone of “the opposite anatomy,” Morrison said.

Under his legislation, sex is defined as “the physical condition of being male or female, as determined by an individual’s chromosomes and identified at birth by that individual’s anatomy.”

I know the world would be a simpler place if we could just turn the clock back to the days when we all believed it was that straightforward.

But experience now tells us that not everyone so easily fits into Category A or B, and that gender involves more than biology.

I’ve told you about my college roommate Dave Schroer from Oak Lawn who transitioned to become Diane Schroer after a long career in the Army.

I can only imagine the psychological pain she experienced growing up, always thinking of herself as a woman trapped in the body of a man.

In those days, letting on that you were different in that way simply wasn’t done. So Schroer tried to live the life of a man’s man and was quite effective at it. But it took a toll on her.

It seems an improvement to me, therefore, that young people are being allowed to more openly express their non-conforming gender identity.

But it’s still not easy for them.

As a coalition led by the American Academy of Pediatrics warned in a February letter to our nation’s governors:

“Transgender kids are already at heightened risk for violence, bullying and harassment, and these bills exacerbate those risks by creating a hostile environment in one of the places they should feel the safest and most supported.”

I spoke to Morrison on Monday and see no reason to attack him personally. He just takes a traditional view of this matter, as I imagine do many of his constituents in Palatine where this became a contentious issue in the local high school district.

Morrison believes he struck a sound compromise in his legislation by providing that school districts “may” set-aside a separate restroom or changing room for transgender students. I wrote about the Chicago Police Academy taking a similar approach three years ago to make itself more friendly to transgender recruits.

But Ziri said Morrison’s approach negates the efforts of many school districts to take a more thoughtful approach that recognizes the value of allowing students to choose the restroom or locker room of the gender with which they identify.

With that in mind, Equality Illinois has put its bipartisan lobbying team to work on educating legislators about the issue and activated supporters to sign an online petition and contact lawmakers.

Most of us would benefit from the same education.

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