Illinois is not North Carolina. A distasteful bill here that would require students to use restrooms matching the sex on their birth certificates is expected to go nowhere in the Legislature.
But that doesn’t excuse state Rep. Thomas Morrison’s decision to introduce this bill, which needlessly shames innocent transgender students and undermines sensible efforts to upgrade school facilities to respectfully accommodate them.
A number of schools in Illinois have opened up bathrooms and locker rooms to students who have transitioned or who are doing so. Why should schools that are trying to deal with the issue in a sensitive and inclusive way be stuffed into Morrison’s one-size-fits-all — and fundamentally intolerant — approach?
EDITORIAL
As a Palatine Republican, Morrison knows his local high school district, District 211, was found to have violated Title IX by denying a transgender student access to a locker room corresponding to her gender identity. If all school districts around the state were required to violate Title IX, as would happen under Morrison’s bill, the financial penalties would be significant.
When North Carolina enacted a law requiring transgender people to use restrooms corresponding to the sex on their birth certificates, businesses across the country threatened to boycott the state. Mayor Rahm Emanuel said he would try to lure some of those businesses and conventions to Chicago. Or would Morrison prefer that Illinois embarrass itself as well?
To compound the wrongheadedness, Morrison’s bill would become moot under a different House bill that would allow transgender people to change the gender designation on their birth certificates without first having surgery. This reform already has been adopted by the federal government and 12 states.
The Legislature should bury Morrison’s bill. Our state is better than this.
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