Amid increasingly hostile laws and rhetoric targeting transgender people in the United States, many of them seek to move to places they feel safer. Aaron Slayton is one of many who have made a new home in central Illinois.
The states that are suing are focused on the administration’s civil and criminal enforcement efforts that target providers. The suspended care has sent families with transgender young people scrambling for care.
Indiana is among 26 states — many in the Midwest and South — that have outlawed youth gender-affirming care statewide since 2021. In Illinois, political leaders have moved in the opposite direction.
In the run-up to the Nov. 5 election, 55% of voters felt support for trans rights had gone too far, according to VoteCast, a survey by The Associated Press and partners including KFF, the health policy research, polling, and news organization that includes KFF Health News.
As part of Illinois Public Media’s special series Four More Years: The View from Illinois, The 21st show discusses how the transgender community and providers who provide gender-affirming care are preparing for another Trump presidency.
As part of Illinois Public Media’s special series Four More Years: The View from Illinois, State Rep. Kelly Cassidy discusses Illinois’s protections for reproductive, transgender healthcare on the 21st show as a new administration takes over.
While Illinois has moved to protect access to gender-affirming care and enshrined civil rights for the LGBTQ+ community overall, four of the five states that border Illinois have all seen a massive rise in bills that target the queer community, especially transgender youth. According to the ACLU’s anti-LGBTQ legislation tracker, Missouri’s state legislature has considered 48 bills in 2023 alone that would negatively impact the queer community in areas ranging from healthcare to education to free speech and expression.
Illinois lawmakers passed a trio of bills that would update existing laws to be more gender inclusive and add protections for LGBTQ marriages. Gov. J.B. Pritzker has said he will sign them.