Since he was getting married, new Equality Illinois CEO Brian C. Johnson could not attend the organization's EqualityCon 2016 held at the University of Illinois at Chicago ( UIC ) Student Center May 13-14.
However, he would no doubt have been encouraged at the line-up of leading state and national advocates and political figures who attended EqualityCon to address a range of issues, including transgender equality, racial justice, youth empowerment and the state budget impasse.
Headlining EqualityCon's opening night, Rep. Jan Schakowsky ( D-Illinois ) introduced keynote speaker Rep. David Cicilline ( D-Rhode Island ), who, among a number of committee positions, serves as co-chair of the Congressional LGBT Equality Caucus.
An openly gay man, Cicilline introduced the Equality Act in July 2015 designed to "expand the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and other existing laws to extend anti-discrimination protections for both sexual orientation and gender identity."
In a further example of the kind of progressive leadership emerging from the highest levels of government, Schakowsky praised United States Attorney General Loretta Lynch for "leading the charge to protect the rights of LGBT people."
Schakowsky cited Lynch's May 9 speech regarding North Carolina's HB2 legislation which the Attorney General described as "state-sponsored discrimination against transgender individuals" and noted the subsequent letter on transgender students distributed by the U.S. Department of Education to school districts nationwide.
She termed the resulting backlash as "the last gasp" of those people who "are trying to drag us back."
"You see some vigor behind their fight," she said. "But I think it is because there is this growing recognition that it is lost and they we are moving ahead. While North Carolina is fighting over bathrooms, Mississippi is trying to use religion as a tool for discrimination."
"In 1980, the Democratic Party endorsed a national party platform to advance gay rights," Cicilline said. "36-years later we are still waiting for our friends on the other side of the aisle to catch up. The way things are going, it might be another 36 years before they come around."
Cicilline honored Chicago as the birthplace of the gay-rights movement through Henry Gerber's 1924 founding of the Society for Human Rights and Illinois as a state that has continually provided historic benchmarks for equality. He added that ranking highest among them was the political rise of President Barack Obama.
"There is no question that President Obama is the most consequential president in the history of LGBT equality," Cicilline said. "Despite that progress, we have a lot of work to do. It is surprising to most Americans that, despite the decision of the United States Supreme Court on marriage equality, in most places across America you can be married on a Saturday, post your wedding pictures of Facebook on Sunday and then be fired from your job or thrown out of your apartment on Monday just because of who you are."
Echoing Lynch, Cicilline noted that the legislation in North Carolina, Tennessee and Mississippi along with the nearly 200 bills introduced in 34 states in the past year alone amounted to "nothing more than state-sanctioned discrimination."
"They claim to solve problems that, in reality, don't exist," he said. "Their sole purpose is to relegate the LGBT community to a second-class status. Make no mistake about it. This is a well-coordinated, well-funded assault by a group of people who are standing on the wrong side of history."
His attempts to combat them through the Equality Act have, according to Cicilline, garnered the support of 174 members of the House.
"Despite that, the bill really remains trapped by Republican House leadership who refuse to bring this bill to the floor, to give us a hearing in the judiciary committee or, frankly, to address any other legislation attempting to confront LGBT discrimination," he asserted. "Speaker [Paul] Ryan talks a lot about making the Republican Party the party of opportunity. It would be a really easy way to match that rhetoric through action by bringing this bill forward."
Cicilline characterized objections based on religious liberty as a "bait and switch."
"These arguments about religious freedom or religious exemptions actually don't exist in the context of LGBT equality," he said. "The reality is that there is no religious tradition that has as its core teaching that it is appropriate to deny housing, food or employment to people who are lesbian gay, bisexual or transgender."
"Their argument that they should be allowed to discriminate against people who sin doesn't make any sense because there are lots of sins in the Bible," he added. "Are we going to deny someone a mortgage because they eat at Red Lobster? Are we going to throw someone out of school because they wear a wool and cotton blend that they bought at Old Navy?"
"We are at a really critical point in this fight for our community," Cicilline concluded. "I am confident that history is not going to look kindly on those who stood in the way of progress and equality. I have no doubt that we will pass the Equality Act. The only question is how quickly we get to that point."
For more information about Equality Illinois, visit EqualityIllinois.us.