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PROPOSED SUBSTITUTE TO FILE 21-2215
(Human Relations Committee 6/22/2021)
Sponsored by: KEVIN B. MORRISON, Cook County Board of Commissioners
PROPOSED ORDINANCE
GENDER INCLUSIVE DOCUMENTS AND FORMS
BE IT ORDAINED, by the Cook County Board of Commissioners, that Chapter 2 - Administration, Article I - In General, Sections 2-9 Gender Inclusive Documents and Forms of the Cook County Code, is hereby enacted as follows:
Sec. 2-9 Gender Inclusive Documents and Forms
(a) No form issued by the County shall ask an individual's sex unless it is necessary for medical reasons, legitimate government data collection, or required by another law.
(b) Any time the County asks for an individual’s sex, the form or document shall ask for an individual’s “sex assigned at birth”.
(c) The County shall also ask for the gender identity of an individual any time that a form or document asks for an individual’s sex assigned at birth.
(d) The County shall provide a written explanation on any County form or document that requires an individual’s sex assigned at birth and gender identity including:
i. Why this data needs to be collected
ii. How the data will be used
iii. How this data will be kept confidential
(e) Where selection of gender identity from predetermined options is required by design of any County form, the gender identity options on said forms shall include at least "man", "woman", “transgender woman/transfeminine”, “transgender man/transmasculine”, "nonbinary/gender nonconforming", an option to fill in, and “decline to answer” and may include additional gender identities.
(f) Where honorifics or titles are made available on any County form, the County shall recognize and make available in any list of predetermined options the gender-neutral honorific "Mx." and an option for an individual to choose to not use an honorific.
(g) Where templates are used to create identification cards, business cards, stationery, letterheads, or other personalized documentation, said templates shall include designated space for pronouns. Where selection of pronouns from predetermined options is required by design of any form or template, the pronoun options on said form or template shall include "he/him", "she/her", "they/them", and an option for an individual to fill in their pronouns.
(h) Exemptions:
i. All forms and other documents that are already printed may continue to be used until the stock is exhausted or until January 1, 2023 - whichever comes first.
ii. All online forms and documents that do not have the technological capacity to make the updates by the effective date in this section shall detail an explanation in the Implementation Timeline Report and implement these updates as soon as is feasible and no later than January 1, 2023.
iii. The Cook County Bureau of Technology shall compile an Implementation Timeline Report to present to the Cook County Technology & Innovation Committee within 3 months of passage of the ordinance that will determine when online documents and forms can feasibly be updated to comply with this Section. The report should detail an explanation of the forms or documents that cannot be updated by the effective date of this ordinance and the steps needed to meet the January 1, 2023 deadline.
Effective date: This ordinance shall go into effect September 1, 2021.
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