CHICAGO — The Chicago City Council on Wednesday approved a resolution opposing the Trump administration’s proposed anti-transgender policy.
The Chicago Sun-Times reported that the council passed the resolution after the appeal of a transgender girl’s mother.
“I’m 100 percent certain that my gender, your gender, and my child’s gender is for the person to decide. Otherwise, I don’t think my kid would be transgender because we really tried,” said the mom, who identified herself as Rachel according to the newspaper.
From the Sun-Times:
Channyn Lynne Parker echoed Rachel’s sentiments. She identified herself as transgender and spoke for Howard Brown Health and the Broadway Youth Center, which serves Chicago’s transgender population.
Parker called the Trump Administration’s efforts to “narrowly re-define gender as being biological and determined by birth” a “deliberate and extremist strategy” to eliminate Title VII and other federal protections for trans people. That, she said, will “undermine our welfare and rights.”
“To render trans people to the identity assigned at birth strips such individuals, including myself, the dignity, humanity and inherent right to self-determine and self-identify,” Parker told aldermen.
“I am further frightened of a future where I, as a trans woman, could be subjected to genetic testing to counter what I have known all my life to be intrinsically right. Allowing the passage of such prohibitions creates a pathway to other direct violations of human rights, giving way to discrimination in health care, housing and employment just to name a few.”
The resolution was the latest action taken by Illinois communities to oppose the proposed policy. Rallies have been held across the state in support of the transgender community, including Decatur, Bloomington, Normal and Buffalo Grove.
The Sun-Times reported that Chicago has offered transgender city employees health coverage for gender reassignment surgeries and services since 2015 and people can use the facilities of their gender identity. City ordinances and the schools explicitly ban discrimination against the transgender community.