Take Action: Illinois Rightwingers Want to Gut LGBT Protections

Take Action: Illinois Rightwingers Want to Gut LGBT Protections

In 2005, a broad coalition of labor, LGBT, and progressive activists from across the state of Illinois joined together to form “The 85% Coalition” to pressure the legislature to pass an inclusive amendment to the Illinois Human Rights Act [IHRA] to outlaw employment discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. Illinois’ law has been a model for the nation–a sweeping and successfully implemented gender and sexuality-inclusive employment non-discrimination law.

This fall, in fact, Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan testified at the federal hearings on ENDA on Capitol Hill, explaining before our law-makers that the law has been a major benefit for Illinois businesses and workers.

Charges filed with IDHR [Illinois Department of Human Rights] also show that religious institutions have not been impacted by the 2006 Amendments to IHRA. Since the effective date of the 2006 Amendments, only a handful of charges based on sexual orientation have been filed against religious institutions. In FY2009 and so far in FY2010, not a single charge based upon sexual orientation was filed against a religious institution.

Most importantly, a significant number of religious institutions were in support of the 2006 Amendments to IHDA. At the time of the passage of the 2006 Amendments, approximately 87 religious institution, organizations and leaders pledged their public support for the amendments.

However, the far right in Illinois has been irked by this LGBT victory for years, and have been looking at ways to send us back to the closet. They’re getting their chance with Senate Bill 3447 – a bill initially brought by anti-gay GOP gubernatorial candidate, Bill Brady; now championed by another homophobe, John Jones. This is part of a nation-wide strategy to reverse our rights… CHECK OUT THE REST BY CLICKING THE LINK!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010 at 5:27 pm and is filed under Politics & Activism. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.