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Resources for School Board Meetings
​Vocabulary
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Cisgender (or cis): someone who does identify with their sex assigned at birth.
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Transgender (or trans): someone who does not identify with their sex assigned at birth.
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Intersex: someone born with atypical sex characteristics.
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Non-Binary: someone whose identity is outside the binary of male or female.
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Gender non-conforming, gender expansive, agender, gender fluid, gender queer, two spirit, trans masc, trans femme, etc... are other ways to describe someone's gender identity. Make sure to use the term that the person being described prefers.
IL State Protections
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State of Illinois Executive Order 19-11:
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establishes Affirming and Inclusive Schools Task Force to direct the Illinois State Board of Education on how best to support transgender, non-binary, and gender nonconforming students in schools.
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Also states Illinois' Commitment to fostering school environments that are welcoming, safe, supportive, inclusive, and free of discrimination and harassment for all students.
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Illinois Department of Human Rights​ Guidance Relating to Protection of Transgender, and Gender Nonconforming Students Under the Illinois Human Rights Act: addresses several items including these areas
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Failure to Enroll - school cannot refuse enrollment based on actual or perceived sex, sexual orientation, or gender-related identity. ​
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Denial of Access to Facilities, Goods, or Services - affirms access to gender-based restrooms, locker rooms, changing rooms, gender-based sports, and other gender-based activities based on gender-related identity and without having to provide documentation or other proof of gender. Also directs schools to apply dress codes without discrimination based on sex assigned at birth or gender-based identity. This section includes specific guidance for schools to provide alternative options for any student, for any reason, that desires more privacy in school facilities such as locker rooms. Someone's discomfort does not supercede another's right to access​​
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Severe or Pervasive Harassment - does not differentiate between different sources of harassment, meaning any transgender or gender-nonconforming students should be free from harassment in school, whether that harassment comes from other students, faculty or staff, or parents/community members.
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Statistics
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GLSEN: The 2021 National School Climate Survey
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Safety: 81.8% of LGBTQ+ students surveyed reported feeling unsafe in school because of at least one of their actual or perceived personal characteristics.
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Anti-LGBTQ+ Remarks: nearly all students surveyed heard homophobic or transphobic language in school with only 8.8% reporting that the school staff intervened most of the time or always when overhearing negative remarks about gender expression.
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Harassment and Assault: 76.1% experienced in-person verbal harassment based on sexual orientation, gender expression, and gender in the last year, 53.7% were sexually harassed, and 31.2% were physically harassed.
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Discriminatory School Policies and Practices: Between 20-30% of students were prevented from: using their chosen name or pronouns in school, using bathrooms or locker rooms that aligned with their gender, or wearing clothes deemed "inappropriate" based on gender.
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Effects: Students who experienced in-person victimization or discrimination because of their gender identity or expression were almost three times as likely to have missed school in the last month, felt lower levels of belonging, performed poorer academically, were twice as likely to not plan to pursue post-secondary education, were more likely to have been disciplined at school, had lower self-esteem, higher levels of depression, and were more likely to have seriously considered suicide in the past year.
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Additional Statistics:
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46% of transgender and nonbinary young people seriously considered attempting suicide in the past year. (source)
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Only 54% of transgender and nonbinary young people found their school to be gender-affirming, and those that did reported lower rates of suicide. (source)
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Transgender and nonbinary youth who had access to gender-affirming spaces reported lower rates of attempting suicide compared to those who did not. (source)
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Transgender youth with acceptance from at least one adult had 39% lower odds of attempting suicide in the past year. (source)
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Hate Group Information
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Moms for Liberty "Moms for Liberty is a far-right organization that engages in anti-student inclusion activities and self-identifies as part of the modern parental rights movement. The group grew out of opposition to public health regulations for COVID-19, opposes LGBTQ+ and racially inclusive school curriculum, and has advocated books bans."
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Awake Illinois "The professed goal of radical parent groups like Newsome’s, along with Awake IL and Moms for Liberty, is to stop what they say is indoctrination of children into a harmful, non-Christian and unpatriotic worldview. To accomplish their goal, these groups target school board meetings and members in pressure campaigns to ban books and curriculum from schools."
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