Every time Angelina Nordstrom wanted to use the restroom, it took ten minutes to get there and ten minutes to get back. Nordstrom, who is transgender, says that a former employer forced her to use the bathroom in a separate building after coworkers complained about her using the women’s facility.
Democratic state senator Melinda Bush of Grayslake and state rep Sam Yingling, Democrat of Round Lake Beach, were joined by 15 other Democratic lawmakers in sponsoring SB 556. In a statement, Yingling claims the legislation’s passage “will ensure that every resident in Illinois, regardless of gender identity, is able to use a single-occupancy restroom without fear of discrimination.”
In addition to wide support from the business community, the legislation has met with little opposition, according to Illinois house speaker Greg Harris. While he says that a 2017 bill making it easier for transgender people to update their birth certificates was met with “really hateful” rhetoric in the state legislature, not a single senator voted against SB 556 when the proposal was debated in April.
SB 556 is similar to regulations already on the books in California, Vermont, and New Mexico, where they have met with little outcry. New Mexico governor Michelle Lujan-Grisham, a Democrat, OKed a gender-neutral bathroom law in April after the legislation, HB 388, passed its house of representatives with an overwhelming 54-12 majority in February. It goes into effect July 1.
But one of the reasons SB 556 has enjoyed such wide support is that it impacts more than just members of the trans community, according to Brady Davis. They point out the legislation also affects “parents with kids of the opposite sex, caretakers of people of the opposite sex, and people with disabilities.”
