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Put Down Your Nanowrimo And Leave The House
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While change may have come through Chicago Tuesday, a tragic spectacle of how far we still have to go as a society was playing out in Springfield. State Representative Sara Feigenholtz (12th) sponsored HB1732, which would have made it easier for Illinois residents to change the gender listed on their birth certificate. Illinois law currently allows birth certificates to be changed with an affidavit from the doctor who performed the procedure. Affidavits from foreign doctors, however, are not recognized, or by people who have undergone permanent sex reassignment through non-surgical means. HB1732 would have amended the Vital Records Act, providing that "the State Registrar of Vital Records shall establish a new certificate of birth when he or she receives an affidavit by a physician that a person has undergone medical treatment and that by reason of the medical treatment the sex designation on such person's birth record should be changed."
Feigenholtz told NBC5 news that some people cannot undergo surgery but can have their gender permanently changed through other treatments. The amendment was defeated 32-78.
As part of the "debate" that ensued over this bill, lawmakers openly mocked transsexual people on the House floor. State Representative (and Deputy Republican Leader) Bill Black (104th) said "maybe you went somewhere and a voodoo doctor said you were now a man, where you had been a woman.... I've often thought that perhaps I was a female trapped in a male body. I know — it scares me, too.... I wish I didn't have to shave every day." Chicago Democrat State Representative Art Turner (9th), who voted for the measure and was presiding over the chamber at the time of the vote asked the legislative body "have all voted who wish?", in a falsetto voice.
Coming to grips with gender identity disorder, a condition recognized and diagnosable per the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders is difficult enough without state-sanctioned bigotry. For public officials to mock and demean a group of people with a medically recognized condition (as well as a personal right to live their own lives as they see fit) doesn't speak well of those elected officials. And what about Art Turner? He has the guts to vote for the bill, but can't stand up for what he claims to believe in front of his peers? Hardly an example of public trust. Is it too much to ask that a difficult issue be treated with dignity and respect by a group of adults that have put themselves forward to lead the community, even if they disagree? We're afraid that it may be.
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There's something wrong with this world when we can't laugh at chicks with dicks...
There's something even more tragic about the fact that our lawmakers, who are paid by us, get to openly state their bigotry and make fun of humans in a manner that would get the rest of us fired if we acted that way. Our lawmakers need to be held to the same standards that we are held to at work. You know, like not slurring people in the work place, or they get fired - just like anyone else who has a real job.
If this is a acknowledged mental disorder I don't thing the state needs to "officially" recognize whatever a person with a mental disorder wants to be recognized as. Just because I think I'm half alien doesn't mean I am.
saying so doesn't make it so: This isn't about the state "officially recognizing" a mental disorder. The Vital Records Act already provides a means for people to switch the gender on their birth cirtificate. This is about how people go about doing that, and what provisions exist for the State Registrar to issue a new certificate.
State Representatives can vote against this amendment; we may not agree with it here at Chicagoist, but certainly those elected officials have the right to vote no. Our problem is with their behavior on Tuesday. Had they stood on the floor of the State House mocking illinois residents with mental retardation, or illinois residents with clubfoot, you better believe this would be a very different story in the news.
Those damn club footers! Always limping around everywhere...
But yeah, Kevin is right. However you feel about the issue, it doesn't deserve that kind of treatment in that kind of environment.
It's like they never matured past middle school. Unnerving.
If Alderman made comments like this on the floor of the City Council in Chicago, it would be all over the news and there would be an outcry. Chicagoist, thanks for covering this and shining light on what goes on in Springfield. And thank you Sara Feigenholtz for leading on this bill and the ACLU, who drafted it.