The Trans Women's Anti-Violence Project

Representative Kelly Cassidy has filed a bill in the Illinois House of Representatives that would amend the Criminal Code of 1961 to include “gender identity, military status and immigration status” with regards to hate crimes. The bill was authored by The Civil Rights Agenda.

TCRA executive director Anthony Martinez stated

“This is an extremely important bill for the transgender community, and we are very grateful to Representative Cassidy for sponsoring legislation that will advance transgender rights in Illinois. Transgender individuals face pervasive discrimination in every aspect of their lives, and we work with an unconscionable number of transgender individuals who have experienced violence simply because they are transgender.

“A report released last July by the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs (NCAPV) shows that transgender women make up 44 percent of all LGBT murder victims. The study also reported a troubling 13 percent rise in anti-LGBT hate crimes in 2010, and, unfortunately, there is constant violence that goes unreported. Many of the transgender folks who come to us, especially transgender women, say that they don’t feel comfortable reporting an assault because they think they are either going to face police harassment, or they are not going to be seen as a victim but as the person who brought on the attack. The NCAPV study found that over half of survivors did not report the event to the police. Of those who did go to the police, over 60 percent said authorities were ‘indifferent, abusive or deterrent.’ This response was most common among transgender people of color–those most likely to be victim to a crime.”

TCRA political and policy director Lowell Jaffe stated “As a member organization of the LGBTQ Immigration Coalition, and as an organization that works with many transgender individuals that have experienced crimes motivated by hate and discrimination, as well as an organization that fought for the repeal of ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ and is committed to the needs of LGBT service members and veterans, we recognized that hate crime protections in Illinois must be expanded. The federal Hate Crimes Act includes crimes committed because of a victim’s sexual orientation and/or gender identity, but limitations to federal jurisdiction and State’s rights create strict limitations as to when federal agencies can act on a hate crime here in Illinois. This law will allow our state to prosecute these crimes more effectively.”