title
PROPOSED SUBSTITUTE TO FILE 19-0832
HUMAN RELATIONS COMMITTEE
PUBLIC HEARING 2/19/2019
Sponsored By: KEVIN B. MORRISON, DENNIS DEER, ALMA E. ANAYA, LUIS ARROYO JR, SCOTT R. BRITTON, JOHN P. DALEY, BRIDGET DEGNEN, BRANDON JOHNSON, BILL LOWRY, DONNA MILLER, STANLEY MOORE, PETER N. SILVESTRI, DEBORAH SIMS and LARRY SUFFREDIN, County Commissioners
PROPOSED RESOLUTION
CONDEMNING THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION’S TREATMENT OF TRANSGENDER, GENDER NON-CONFORMING, AND INTERSEX INDIVIDUALS
WHEREAS, the Trump administration and the Department of Health and Human Services is considering narrowly defining gender as a biological, immutable condition determined by genitalia at birth; and
WHEREAS, the Trump administration has banned transgender and gender non-conforming individuals from serving in the United States military; and
WHEREAS, the Departments of Justice and Education withdrew landmark 2016 guidance explaining how schools must protect transgender students under the federal Title IX law; and
WHEREAS, various other federal departments and agencies took direct action to weaken protections against transgender individuals that has been documented by the National Center for Transgender Equality; and
WHEREAS, the Cook County Board of Commissioners has been informed of this by Commissioner Kevin B. Morrison and LGBTQ advocates; and
WHEREAS, Commissioner Kevin B. Morrison and LGBTQ advocates see this effort as a hateful attempt to roll back recognition and protections of transgender, gender non-conforming, and intersex people; and
WHEREAS, this proposed definition by the Department of Health and Human Services would essentially eradicate federal recognition of the estimated 1.4 million Americans who identify as a gender other than the one they were assigned at birth; and
WHEREAS, this proposed definition would erase children who are born with intersex conditions, which is about 1.7 percent of the population, having been born with a reproductive or sexual anatomy that doesn't fit the typical definitions of female or male; and
WHEREAS, this position makes irrelevant and discounts what transgender, gender non-conforming and intersex people understand about themselves and discounts what medical providers know and understand about their transgender, gender non-conforming, and intersex patients; and
WHEREAS, this redefining would force genetic testing to resolve any dispute, denying transgender and gender non-conforming individuals their autonomy and humanity; and
WHEREAS, children born with intersex traits are often subjected to harmful, non-consensual surgeries, in Chicago and around the United States, in an attempt to, make their natural sex characteristics conform to false binary notions of 'male' or 'female' bodies, which the Trump Administration's restrictive view of sex and gender would purport to validate; and
WHEREAS, the Trump administration’s ban on military service by transgender and gender non-conforming individuals does not recognize the incredible sacrifice and service of as many as 15,000 transgender and gender non-conforming troops that are already serving and would be forced to either conceal their gender identity or face discharge; and
WHEREAS, the Trump administration’s ban on military service by transgender and gender non-conforming individuals keeps talented and willing individuals out of the military based on a discriminatory policy; and
WHEREAS, all action necessary should be taken to make school a place where all students are affirmed and empowered and are provided with a safe environment to learn; and
WHEREAS, Cook County is affirming and welcoming of all individuals to self-identify; and
WHEREAS, Cook County stands with the transgender, gender non-conforming, and intersex community and affirms that intersex, gender non-conforming, and transgender people #WontBeErased; and
THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that we, the Cook County Board President and Cook County Board of Commissioners do hereby honor the identities of transgender, gender non-conforming and intersex people, celebrate them, affirm their lives and call on President Trump and the Department of Health and Human Services to stop any attempt to narrowly define gender as biological; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that suitable copies of this resolution are presented to President Donald J. Trump, Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex M. Azar II, Acting Secretary of Defense Patrick M. Shanahan, and Department of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos.
end