Illinois Legislature Advances Gender Identity Protection Bill

[traci_k]

Illinois Legislature Advances Gender Identity Protection Bill

ON HRC Blog
May 13, 2015 by Hayley Miller, Digital Media Associate

http://www.hrc.org/blog/entry/illinois-legislature-advances-gender-identity-protection-bill

This week the Illinois Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously passed a bill that will ensure that transgender people are respected after death. The bill has already passed the House.

[Dee Marshall]

Great start, the other states should follow suit, but would it be too much to ask for a bill that we be respected before death?

Yeah, yeah, I know. You can't legislate that.

[traci_k]

Yeah Dee, I was thinking the same thing. Some bloody good respecting someone AFTER they're dead, but it is a start. My other concern is how do you enforce it as in the case of Leelah Alcorn where her parents wrote the obit calling her a him?

[Tysilio]

Yeah Dee, I was thinking the same thing. Some bloody good respecting someone AFTER they're dead, but it is a start. My other concern is how do you enforce it as in the case of Leelah Alcorn where her parents wrote the obit calling her a him?

That was my first thought, too, but, yeah, it's a start.

It won't help Leelah Alcorn, but I think she'd be proud to know that she helped to bring this about. The HRC article implies that the bill will give the force of law to a written directive, so it will help many people to know they'll be treated with the dignity they deserve. However, this will work only for people who write one. It probably won't be the first thing on the mind of someone who is preparing to commit suicide, nor will it help many young people who die violent deaths: the young tend not to think that they need to worry about such things.

[Dee Marshall]

Wish it was in my state. My Sweetie has already said she won't follow my wishes in other areas. Don't have to worry about being misnamed, at least. I'm not changing it. My first name is ambiguous and I'll keep it to honor my parents. Thought about changing my middle name, but it seems a lot of trouble and expense to go to just for that. I'll just say my parents chose "Patricia" and the hospital messed up the paperwork and put "Patrick". It's plausible, a hospital screwed up my son's middle name.