LGBT Rights American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois

04/03/16 8:42 pm

LGBT Rights
Issue Overview
Current Legal Cases
Legislative Activity
Press Releases
News Articles
From the ACLU-IL Blog

Useful Links
ACLU Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender Project
Get Busy, Get Equal
You Have the Right to Be Yourself
It's Personal: Civil Unions in Illinois
In courtrooms, in the legislature and in our schools and communities,
we fight for an Illinois free from discrimination based on sexual
orientation and gender identity. Our goal is an Illinois where LGBT
persons can live openly, and our families are respected. Our LGBT
work falls into 5 issue areas relationship recognition, parenting,
youth and schools, basic rights and liberties, and gender
identity/expression. A cornerstone of discrimination against the LGBT
community is a legal system that treats families of same-sex couples as legal strangers. Our primary goal
in our fight for relationship recognition is to end of Illinois exclusion of lesbian and gay couples from
access to marriage. We seek to protect the parenting rights of LGBT people with the aim to end
discrimination and legal restrictions on our ability to parent because of our sexual orientation or gender
identity. In our youth and schools work, we fight for the freedom of LGBTQ youth to express their
identity and ideas, or keep their identity private if they choose; and for tolerance, safety, and fair treatment
for young people regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity. Our basic rights and liberties
efforts seek to ensure the LGBT have the chance to fully participate in society without being subject to
discrimination in employment, housing, and public accommodations. The central goal of our gender
identity/expression work is for us all, including transgender Illinoisans, to have our gender recognized
without facing discrimination.

Featured Items
Joint Statement on Stopping Discrimination Against Transgender Students
We stand with transgender and gender nonconforming students in Illinois and denounce the blatantly
discriminatory bill recently introduced in the Illinois House by Rep. Tom Morrison (R-Palatine). HB-4474
would force... Continue reading

http://www.aclu-il.org/issues2/lbgt-rights/

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LGBT Rights American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois

04/03/16 8:42 pm

District 211 Board vote falls short of full inclusion for students who are transgender
UPDATE 12/4/2015 4:00 p.m. School District 211 issued a press release suggesting that the OCR was
acting in bad faith on the settlement affecting our client, and threatening an emergency... Continue
reading

Department of Education stands with high school student who is transgender

U.S. Department of Education finds that Palatine District 211s denial of gender-appropriate changing
facilities violates Title IX CHICAGO Despite efforts by the school district to justify their behavior, the...
Continue reading

Getting it right for transgender students

John Knight, LGBT Project Director Last week, a suburban Chicago school district High School District
211 announced that they would not comply with a ruling by the Department... Continue reading

District announces that it will violate federal law

Suburban School District says that it will discriminate against transgender students by denying them
gender-appropriate locker room facilities in violation of Title IX CHICAGO A suburban Chicago school
district... Continue reading

Victory against discrimination

Human Rights Commission says that Bed & Breakfast violated law when it denied downstate couple use
of its facility for civil union ceremony In a decision that has broad... Continue reading

Viral Photo Highlights Need for Action In Support Of LGBT Youth

Im homosexual and Im afraid about what my future will be and that people wont like me. Sadly, this
quote didnt come from a gay person several decades ago, during... Continue reading

June 26th: A Historic Day for Equality

June 26, 2015. Twelve years to the day after the Supreme Court struck down bans on sodomy in Lawrence
v. Texas. Two years to the day after the Supreme Court... Continue reading

Windy City Times: Married same-sex couples denied health care benefits by
employers
A story in the Windy City Times profiles a couple represented by the ACLU of Illinois, who were denied
health insurance coverage through the Local 225 of the Laborers International Union of... Continue
reading

Im Still Gonna Be Me: Leading the Charge for Change in Prisons and
Everywhere Else
http://www.aclu-il.org/issues2/lbgt-rights/

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LGBT Rights American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois

04/03/16 8:42 pm

I first met Tatyana a few years after the Wisconsin legislature passed the Inmate Sex Change Prevention
Act a cruel piece of legislation aimed at denying urgently needed healthcare... Continue reading

http://www.aclu-il.org/issues2/lbgt-rights/

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