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Pulling back the curtains on wage-theft enforcement in MN; Trump's latest attack is on RFK, Jr; NM LGBTQ+ equality group endorses 2024 'Rock Star' candidates; Michigan's youth justice reforms: Expanded diversion, no fees.

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Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says rebuilding Baltimore's Key Bridge will be challenging and expensive. An Alabama Democrat flips a state legislature seat and former Connecticut senator Joe Lieberman dies at 82.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Gender ID Bill Before Illinois Lawmakers

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Monday, February 6, 2017   

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. -- State lawmakers in Illinois are being asked to support legislation that would allow a person to change the gender marker on their birth certificate.

A bill to modernize the state's birth certificate law was filed last week. It would allow transgender Illinoisans to more easily correct the gender label on a birth certificate. Current law requires an applicant to show proof that they have undergone gender reassignment surgery.

Mike Ziri, director of public policy at Equality Illinois, said although surgery is no longer a requirement to change a person's gender identification, a health care professional will still have a part in the process.

"It would be a declaration by a licensed mental health professional or licensed health care professional who has treated and evaluated the person,” Ziri explained. "That declaration would state that the person has undergone treatment that is clinically appropriate for the individual."

The measure, House Bill 1785, was sponsored by state Rep. Greg Harris . Harris filed a similar bill last year but it stalled in committee.

Opponents, like the Illinois Family Institute, have said the measure would subordinate "objective truths," such as a person's biological sex.

Ziri said this bill moves Illinois State law into the 21st Century and brings it into line with the federal government, as well as 13 other states and the District of Columbia.

"We know that the modern medical standards of care do not require surgery for a transgender person to be living their authentic and full gender identity,” Ziri said.

The legislation is backed by organizations across the state, including the ACLU of Illinois, Equality Illinois, the AIDS Foundation of Chicago, Howard Brown Health, Lambda Legal, and the Illinois Safe Schools Alliance.


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