Illinois Legislators Are Creating a Sexless Society

Written by Jennifer M. Korte 
Former candidate for IL House Rep District 112 in 2022
Local advocate for common sense and political transparency

Illinois legislators are hard at work creating a sexless society. Using sex-neutral terminology, they are creating and changing legislation to remove any distinction between males and females. Moreover, they are trampling on advancements in our society for women’s rights and lawful protections, while endangering some of the most vulnerable members of our society.

Recently, Illinois State Representative Kelly M. Cassidy (D-Chicago) sponsored HB 2350: INS-PAP TESTS/PROSTATE SCREEN. The legislation says that insurance will pay for “individuals” to get prostate exams and pap smears. Any reference to “men” or “women” is now replaced with “individual.”

There are obvious medical consequences for taking sex specific terminology out of medicine. Medical staff would need to know one’s sex to accurately diagnose and treat patients with sex specific diseases and conditions (such as testicular cancer, prostate cancer, cervical cancer, pregnancy, etc.). At the request of the patient, are medical staff required to run unnecessary sex-specific tests, such as pregnancy tests for males or prostate cancer screenings for females? Will taxpayer funded, state health insurance be forced to pay for these unnecessary tests? What are the legal ramifications if medical providers wrongly diagnose someone based on the person’s identified gender?

In an attempt to further create a sexless society, Illinois Democrats and the Biden administration have re-defined Title IX. Title IX has historically been used to protect women and girls in sports. Now it protects and promotes biological men competing in women’s sports. Even on hormone replacement therapy medications, there are clear physical advantages biological men have over biological women. Women and girls risk physical injury by their biological male teammates or opponents. They also miss out on scholarship opportunities and ultimately will be pushed out of their own sports.

Aside from the medical and sports related implications, what happens when sex-neutral terminology impacts safe and private spaces for women? If there is no distinction between men and women in legislation, women could be forced to share locker rooms, hospital rooms, nursing home rooms, homeless shelters, prisons and domestic violence shelters with fully intact biological men.

Illinois State Representative Katie Stuart (D-Collinsville) sponsored legislation (HB 1286: EQUITABLE RESTROOMS-ALL-GENDER) to allow builders the option to create co-ed, multi-stall bathrooms with open space urinals divided by partitions. Per the legislation, no option for sex specific restrooms would be allowed nearby the gender neutral bathroom. Rep. Stuart dismissed constituents’ safety concerns regarding the minimal privacy of urinals. Open spaced urinals with simple partitions would have exposed young girls to be at eye level with male genitalia. After public outcry, the senate took out all wording regarding urinals prior to the legislation passing both houses.

To take this a step further, Illinois Democrats are now wanting to take all sex-specific terminology out of legislation concerning children. HB 1596: CHILDREN-PRONOUNS-REFERENCES sponsored by Illinois State Representative Lakesia Collins (D-Chicago) is particularly concerning since our children are likely the most vulnerable in our society. By taking away sex-specific terminology, will children be forced into co-ed juvenile detention centers, co-ed locker rooms, or co-ed hospital rooms? This has already been an issue in some Illinois public school restrooms as children voice their discomfort with sharing restrooms with their opposite sex classmates. Unfortunately, their concerns were silenced as they were told the law protects those who choose to enter their private spaces.

History has long shown that criminals take advantage of environments where they are empowered over their victims. Criminals use these situations to victimize women, children, people who are physically or cognitively disabled, and senior citizens. And now, Illinois legislators have decided to make it easier for criminals to take advantage of these new laws and sex-neutral spaces. Previous, long-standing legislation protecting women, children and seniors is now being re-written in a manner that will directly victimize, abuse or terrorize them.

Even though it has long been accepted in human history to say that men and women are different, in today’s society, many are afraid to voice this truth. Citizens who attempt to stand up to these radical ideas are being shamed into silence by extreme Democrats. Democrats use hateful terms such as transphobic, homophobic, and bigot to describe anyone who stands in opposition to their ideas. This is ironic since shame and name calling is also what abusers use to silence their victims.

Can we no longer maintain common sense legislation with certain sex-specific legislation? Illinois legislators have used a lot of their time in Springfield trying to form sexless legislation. Are these the most pressing issues Illinois residents are facing?