In the wake of President-elect Donald Trump’s reelection, advocates for transgender people in Illinois are scrambling to strengthen the state protections they’ve created, while some trans Midwesterners consider moving to states with shield laws for safe harbor.

State Rep. Kelly Cassidy told the Sun-Times there has been a coalition effort of state lawmakers to protect trans and reproductive health care access since the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade leaked in 2022.

Now, they’re looking closely at Project 2025 — a conservative policy playbook created by the Heritage Foundation — and Trump policy proposals and “evaluating what further protections we can enact in the coming months,” a spokesperson for Gov. JB Pritzker said.

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Protections for reproductive rights and gender-affirming care were enshrined in state law in January 2023, putting Illinois on the side of people who risk prosecution by traveling to the state for treatment and also protecting the licenses of Illinois doctors who provide care that’s illegal elsewhere. The Illinois Human Rights Act also protects against discrimination based on gender identity.

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[–] tardigrada@beehaw.org 5 points 4 days ago

With the results of the 2024 presidential election confirmed, members of the LGBTQ+ community are understandably distressed. Seeing as Donald Trump plans to rollback transgender rights and other protections for queer people, it's clear why 86 percent of LGBTQ+ voters cast their ballots for Kamala Harris, and why 62 percent said they’d be “scared” for Trump to win.

Many are also alarmed that the hateful policies are seemingly what the majority of Americans have endorsed, but Dr. Michelle Forcier, a clinician with LGBTQ+ digital healthcare platform FOLX Health, believes it better to interpret the results in a different way.