Transgender activists from the group Illinois Gender Advocates (IGA) are facing off with the ACLU over a lawsuit that by most counts, aims to do exactly what IGA has been working toward for months.
On May 10, the ACLU filed a lawsuit against the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH). The class-action suit, filed on behalf of three transgender individuals, alleges that current policy unfairly prevents many transgender people from changing the gender marker on their birth certificates.
IGA also found the policy problematic but says it has been working on changing the policy internally, that they were nearing a resolution with IDPH, and the new lawsuit could hamper their efforts. The disagreement has become the subject of an often awkward public stalemate between two groups working toward the same goal.
"This wasn't stepping over us," said IGA Chair Candice Hart. "It was stepping on us."
Hart said that she did not even know the ACLU was filing suit until she read about in the newspapers. "We were concerned as well as dismayed that the ACLU would take such action without so much as giving us a heads up," Hart said.
In January, IDPH released a new proposed policy on transgender people and birth certificates. That policy, which mandated a laundry list of surgeries before a gender marker could be changed, was met with strong critiques from transgender organizers. Such surgeries can cost in the tens of thousands of dollars and are rarely covered by insurance companies. It was also met with scorn by the ACLU.
Hart said that she felt fairly confident that the ACLU knew that IGA was working on changing the policy already.
John Knight, director of the LGBT Project at the ACLU of Illinois, is the attorney on the case. He told Windy City Times, "I don't think I knew that IGA was involved [in re-drafting the policy]," although he did know that the policy was under revision. However, Knight added, his clients were denied birth certificates on April 21 for lack of genital surgery "without any indication that DPH intended to change the rule."
June LaTrobe, the director of public policy for IGA, said that IDPH presented the proposed policy to the public for revision and that IGA had already been successful in negotiating out many of the initial requirements. She also claimed that she had personally informed Knight of their progress.
"[IDPH] has been genuine in wanting to work with us," LaTrobe said. LaTrobe added that they were just months away from having a new policy in place.
Knight said his clients could not wait any longer. The ACLU filed a similar lawsuit against IDPH in 2009. That suit was settled when the state granted new birth certificates to the plaintiffs and promised to update policies to make it easier for transgender people to change their certificates. That more progressive policy never came, however, and policy IDPH proposed in January included strict requirements that, Knight said, the department had agreed to do away with.
"We've been telling the department for two years that its arbitrary surgery rules clash with the medical standard of care for transgender people and make it impossible for most transgender people to correct the gender on their birth certificates," Knight said in a recent press release. "We took them at their word when they said they would make an appropriate change, but all we've seen is more delay."
The controversy may come at a sensitive time for Chicago-based transgender organizers. In April, the Cook County sheriff's office announced a new program for housing transgender detainees, a program that was developed without input from the local transgender community. The announcement of a new sentencing program for transgender sex workers this week also caught many by surprise as major players in transgender organizing, including the Transformative Justice Law Project of Illinois, were not consulted on the program.
Now, IGA is accusing Knight and the ACLU of skirting their own efforts to advocate for their community.
Knight told Windy City Times the two groups can work together. "We applaud all groups, including the IGA, for their efforts to change this policy," he said. "We, however, respectfully disagree that our litigation is 'counterproductive.' We hope that our work and theirs leads to an end of the current, harmful policy."
Hart said IGA wants open communication with the ACLU. How the two groups will work together on the issue remains unclear. IGA has no plans to stop working with IDPH. The ACLU has no plans to drop the lawsuit.