U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky's granddaughter, Isabel, recently came out to her family. When Isabel told her sister, her sister replied, "Grandma is going to love this."
Schakowsky did indeed love the news. She brandished Isabel's picture proudly in the moments before her Windy City Times interview started and spoke about how excited she was that Isabel was happy at her college, "where it seems like everyone is queer."
Schakowsky has been representing the 9th Congressional District since 1999, and is running in this election cycle against activist and former advertising executive Joan McCarthy Lasonde. She spoke about her work with the LGBT community, advances she sees for it in the years ahead and how it all has impacted her family.
Windy City Times: What are the most pertinent goals for the LGBT community right now?
Jan Schakowsky: Definitely the Equality Act, which takes a new approach to amend the Civil Rights Act. It's a new approach to doing everything, not just ENDA, credit or housing—it would be everything. David Cicilline is the chief sponsor. I know I'm an original sponsor, but I don't know where I am in there. I think that is a reasonable goal for us to do. We have something like 170 co-sponsors; we only have 188 Democrats [in the House].
It's so hard to predict what "post-election" is going to look like. There is a chance that we'll be in the majority, which would be amazing, in the House and Senate; we'd pass this. I still think it's not that likely that we'll be able to get the 30, because they've been very successful at gerrymandering. It's hard, but not impossible.
We're also in the last gasp of the religious right. They haven't quite yet waved the white flag on the social agenda, so we certainly see that when it comes to choice and [legislation such as] the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which Pence had. But those kinds of things keep coming up, so we'll just have to keep stamping them out.
I think transgender people, especially transgender youth, need to be a focus, because they're still at risk of suicide, homelessness and the whole range of negative outcomes. We're going to have to address that. There are smaller things, like the LGBT Data Inclusion Act. That bill improves federal population surveys by requiring collection of the data, self-disclosed data on sexual orientation and gender identity. There is a whole list of bills.
Appointments are also going to be another thing to make sure that the LGBT community is well-represented in a Clinton administration. Including the federal bench and agencies would be something where we could make good progress, I think.
WCT: How can some bipartisanship be restored in Congress to make it more effective during the upcoming administration?
JS: I think elections will make a difference. What's really important is that, I think, we'll win some statehouses back. They had control of the redistricting. I think we dropped the ball in paying attention to gubernatorial and state legislative races, so we're going to really need to do that to make sure that districts that are impossible to win are not created.
I think we're going to have some opportunities to get things done and get some bipartisanship. Let's say we picked up 20 or 25 seats. It's very clear that Paul Ryan, if he's still the speaker, will need Democratic votes to get things done. So we won't see so many bad [bill] riders. They put a rider on the Zika bill, not only on Planned Parenthood but to have the Confederate flag flown in veterans' cemeteries.
But Democrats have made some strides too. I mean, 170 co-sponsors on this major civil rights bill—that's big. I had my LGBTQ fundraiser last Sunday, and said there, the gay community has given me hope in so many different places. To be able to say that, in this difficult environment, we've won so may different things. Not everything, but we've proven that you can keep moving forward. You can take advantage of these demographic changes and make things happen.
People are seeing the connection between a lot of things, and Trump has actually helped with a lot of that, because he's gone after everybody. Even if he hasn't gone after the gay community as badly, Pence is the worst there is. He picked the most homophobic governor in the country, and anti-choice, anti-worker, you name it.
WCT: What would be some other priorities for your constituency in the term ahead?
JS: Health care—I am proud to have helped write the Affordable Care Act, but if we had had a partner on the other side of the aisle, there would not have been problems. The first problem is that insurance companies are still in charge. Here in Illinois, the networks are leaving the markets. You've got Aetna leaving and the Land of Lincoln co-op leaving. I feel like people are being left with no options. I've introduced a public option that we create, under Obamacare, where people can sign up under a public plan.
The other thing is the cost of meds. I was just at Dick Durbin at Lurie Children's Hospital. A physician there said that the cost of a drug for children with lead poisoning that was $500 is now going at $27,000. Big pharma is out of control. People are going broke.
Getting the voting-rights stuff—stopping voter suppression—is a really big deal. Gun violence, also. We've really seen the gay community buy into that after Orlando, and that's great. We appreciate the coalition. We had our sit-in and people felt good about it. But we didn't get a bill. We didn't get anything, so that's definitely unfinished.
WCT: What have you learned working with the LGBT community?
JS: [Former State Rep.] Julie Hamos was given an award by Personal PAC [recently]. She made the point about how [pro-choice activists] learned a lesson from the LGBT community—that coming out, putting a face, someone you know, really makes a difference. We also gained hope and a feeling for victory.
We spent a lot of time in a defensive crouch in this Congress, so we can sometimes forget what it feels like to win and recognize what victory looks like. So I think that's a thing I've learned. On a personal level, I see how my whole family has surrounded Isabel and I see how, because of these victories, she lives in a world that is so loving, where many possibilities are there—marriage, children. There was a time when my contemporaries had to struggle, and they did that for her. My family is so grateful for that.
See JanSchakowsky.org .
