Text of IL SR 1752 (2016)

SR1752LRB099 21440 GRL 47501 r 1SENATE RESOLUTION 2 WHEREAS, On March 23, 2016, the North Carolina General 3Assembly ratified and North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory 4signed House Bill 2, the "Public Facilities Privacy & Security 5Act"; and 6 WHEREAS, On April 5, 2016, the Mississippi Legislature 7ratified and Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant signed House Bill 81523, the "Protecting Freedom of Conscience from Government 9Discrimination Act"; and 10 WHEREAS, The "Public Facilities Privacy & Security Act" and 11the "Protecting Freedom of Conscience from Government 12Discrimination Act" purport to establish new statewide 13standards for what constitutes discriminatory practice in 14employment and public accommodations by establishing new 15statewide requirements for bathrooms and changing facilities 16in all public agencies, including schools; and 17 WHEREAS, The omission of sexual orientation, gender 18identity, gender expression, and other categories from the 19statewide list of categories protected from discrimination 20means that not only do protections on these bases appear to be 21unavailable under state law, but further, that local 22governments appear to be preempted from offering these SR1752- 2 -LRB099 21440 GRL 47501 r 1protections; and 2 WHEREAS, The legislation also appears to eliminate the 3right of any person to bring a civil action in a North Carolina 4court for a claim of discrimination in employment or public 5accommodations on account of race, religion, color, national 6origin, age, or biological sex, as well as handicap for 7employment only; and 8 WHEREAS, By enacting these laws, North Carolina and 9Mississippi political leaders have taken extreme measures to 10attempt to diminish the legislative authority of local 11governments and to use the laws of their states to codify 12discrimination and division, rather than to advance the rights 13and dignity of American citizens; and 14 WHEREAS, These laws demonstrates a lack of knowledge and 15understanding of the experiences of transgender people, a lack 16of respect for the dignity of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and 17transgender people, and a discriminatory intent and a desire to 18use such intent for political gain on the part of the North 19Carolina and Mississippi political leaders; and 20 WHEREAS, These laws are also inconsistent with the Equal 21Protection Clause of the United States Constitution and Title 22IX of the Education Amendments of 1972; therefore, be it SR1752- 3 -LRB099 21440 GRL 47501 r 1 RESOLVED, BY THE SENATE OF THE NINETY-NINTH GENERAL 2ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we affirm our support 3for protecting and advancing the constitutional rights and 4equitable treatment of all and our opposition to 5discrimination, prejudice, homophobia, and transphobia; and be 6it further 7 RESOLVED, That we strongly urge the North Carolina General 8Assembly to repeal the "Public Facilities Privacy & Security 9Act" and for the Mississippi Legislature to repeal the 10"Protecting Freedom of Conscience from Government 11Discrimination Act" at the earliest opportunity; and be it 12further 13 RESOLVED, That we encourage all businesses providing 14public accommodations in North Carolina and Mississippi to 15demonstrate their support for the dignity of all people by 16openly welcoming LGBT people to their places of business and by 17providing gender non-specific bathroom facilities for their 18customers and employees wherever practicable; and be it further 19 RESOLVED, That we urge Governor Bruce Rauner to prohibit 20all non-essential State travel to North Carolina and 21Mississippi until those states take the proper measures to 22repeal these laws; and be it further SR1752- 4 -LRB099 21440 GRL 47501 r 1 RESOLVED, That suitable copies of this resolution be 2delivered to North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory, North 3Carolina Speaker of the House Tim Moore, North Carolina Senate 4President Pro Tempore Phil Berger, Mississippi Governor Phil 5Bryant, Mississippi Speaker of the House Philip Gunn, 6Mississippi Senate President Tate Reeves, and Governor Bruce 7Rauner.