Is it possible that our legislators are trying their best to make Illinois the California of the Midwest, without the mountains or beautiful weather? Our Governors, most certainly, are competing. Both have wildly inflated egos, both ignored their own directives during the height of the pandemic, and both have designs on the White House.

We already have many other similarities as well. Our largest cities are infested with crime and plagued with Soros backed prosecutors. English language and math proficiency for all students also is bleak for both states, although Illinois is worse. California is 50% and 34%, while in Illinois it is 29.9% and 25.8% for English and Math. And both states are losing population in record numbers. The 2020 figures show California losing 182,000 of its population of 39.5 million and Illinois has dropped 104,000 of its 12.5 million total population.

Instead of addressing these and other serious issues, our august lawmakers are trying to stay neck and neck with the Golden State on woke bathroom policies. Our General Assembly just passed an amendment (HB 1286) to the “Equitable Restroom Act,” that allows that “[a]ny multiple-occupancy restroom may be converted into an all-gender multiple-occupancy restroom.” It goes on to describe a variety of requirements for partitioned stalls and urinals. It was passed by a vote of 60 to 40, all Republicans voting against it.

Why?

California passed a similar bill that was signed into law by Newsom last year. The reasoning for the legislation was thin. One explanation was that parents could take their opposite sex minor child into the restroom with them . . . But, wait. Hasn’t that already been going on everywhere, forever?

Then there was the explanation that it allowed for more equitable gender inclusion. Isn’t that a separate argument? Haven’t we already been fighting that issue as it relates to gender identity, allowing people to use the restroom of the sex they identify with rather than their biological sex? I guess it answers the problem of the non-binary. If you don’t identify with either sex, where do you go? Literally, where do you go? Voila, an all-gender restroom.

Some pundits claim that the sex separated restroom prudery didn’t begin until the Victorian era, although many also mention that Paris began using separate public restrooms in the 1700’s.  What nobody mentioned is that throughout most of the world there were no public facilities other than outhouses, alleys and the great outdoors. Ancient Rome had public toilets, but I could not find any definitive source that could say one way or the other if facilities were separate for men and women. Logic indicates they were, since Roman baths were used by men and women, but there were separate designated times for men and for women to use them. Even in Rome, modesty prevailed.

Harvard Law Professor and columnist for the New Yorker, Jeannie Suk Gersen, has a more practical reason for combined restrooms. Saving time. In an article she wrote in 2016, Gersen recounted the occasion when she took the bar exam at the Jacob Javits Center in New York. She had to go to the restroom, but the ladies room had an “enormous line.” Instead of waiting, she walked into the men’s room, where there was no line, used one of the many empty stalls and expeditiously returned to successfully complete her exam. It wasn’t fair, according to Gerson, that the women had a long line while the men had none. So, she corrected the injustice. Professor Gerson observes:

Today, men and women, not assumed to be only heterosexual, are expected to function at work alongside one another, eat at adjacent seats in restaurants, sit cheek by jowl in buses and airplanes, take classes, study in libraries, and, with some exceptions, even pray together. Why is the multi-stall bathroom the last public vestige of gendered social separation? When men, gay or straight, can stand shoulder to shoulder at urinals without a second thought, is there much to back up the view that men and women must not pee or poop next to one another, especially if closed stalls would shield them from view?

Does modesty have no value, privacy and safety no utility, professor?

Why are our legislators devoting time on such issues as this? Is this really something that a majority of Illinoisans want? An identical bill was passed 63-43 in the Illinois House in 2021, but was not voted on in the Senate. Why bring it up again? Why do people with such strange priorities keep getting elected? And why is this a political issue?

Take ACTION: Click HERE to send a message to your local state senator to ask him/her to vote against this legislation when it comes up for a vote on the Senate floor sometime this session. Urge them to reject this foolish woke agenda that fails to recognize biological facts. Ask them to protect the privacy, dignity and safety of all Illinois citizens.

Please, speak out against this destructive bill.

When the Equitable Restrooms bill was introduced in Springfield, a familiar pattern started to emerge. As IFI readers may know, HB 1286 legalizes “all-gender, multiple-occupancy restrooms” in sporting complexes, stadiums, entertainment centers, conference centers, and other big venues in Illinois. Yes, “all-gender” is just what it sounds like – males and females using the same multiple-occupancy restroom at the same time, anytime. There are urinals, stalls, and partitions in co-ed bathrooms.

So our first reaction at IFI was the same as yours and your neighbor’s. Don’t they know these restrooms will be places where rapes and crimes will occur? Don’t they know that at the very least women will lose their privacy when men are in these restrooms? Don’t they know that a 16-year-old girl who needs to use the restroom is vulnerable to men who will frequent these places with evil intentions? So why would we want to create all-gender bathrooms, especially since there have been crimes committed by more than a few men in women’s restrooms in recent years?

Those are all good questions. Unfortunately, those questions aren’t at the center of debate in Springfield — yet. Like I said at the beginning, a familiar pattern has emerged.

The first complaint by the sponsor and those on the left who support this bill is that HB 1286 doesn’t really do what people think it does. The bill only legalizes and permits, not mandates, these restrooms. Well, IFI readers know this. We wrote about it last month. But some people hearing about this for the first time wrongly thought the bill mandated the restrooms, so the far-left’s been painting the picture that ALL of us are mistaken. And they’re making that the central issue of the debate. If that sounds familiar, you’re right.

In the Garden of Eden, Satan asked, “Has God really said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?” Satan placed doubt in Eve’s mind that she might be completely mistaken.  That’s the left’s strategy as well – a lie leading to doubt. “All opponents think this bill requires these restrooms to be built. Therefore since it doesn’t, it’s okay to pass the bill.”

We know the bill just permits these restrooms… for the time being at least. But we also know they’re going to be dangerous and that’s why we’re opposed. The left then goes to the second tactic – temptation.

As Satan said, “Well, God knows if you ate of that fruit, your eyes would be opened and you would be like God.” Hmmm…..doesn’t sound that bad, almost tempting. So Eve takes the fruit and gives it to Adam and they sin.

The left once again draws attention away from the truth by saying, “The bill merely provides the framework on how to construct these restrooms. All we’re doing is making sure that if someone does construct these restrooms, they need to do it a certain way for safety reasons.” That might sound more reasonable, but it completely masks the question of ‘Why do we need to provide the framework in the first place?’  What they are trying to avoid is that all-gender multiple occupancy restrooms are currently illegal. And common sense tells us that they’re unsafe. And there’s no amount of framework that will make them safe.

So believe it or not, legislators are not yet publicly debating your privacy or safety in legalizing these restrooms; they’re merely talking about providing the framework for construction of these restrooms which will inevitably also provide the framework for crimes against women and girls.

Even California hasn’t done what Illinois is proposing. Why? It’s unsafe. The closest California has come is proposing a single-use “transgender bathroom” in every school. They would keep the boys and girls restrooms as they are.

Christians are called to love God and love one another. We defend God’s Word here on earth and simply repeat God’s loving reasons why we should not do this or that as it will harm God’s people. We also proclaim what God says would make things better for all people.  In the Capitol, that often means opposing others who feel they are doing the right thing in their own minds.  The hard part is taking all of the slings and arrows that come from intentional misrepresentations, lies, and deceit. And it’s no fun being mocked, ridiculed, and laughed at for standing up for Christian values in this culture war. History repeats this pattern over and over for us Christians. It’s the path Jesus endured to the point of death on a cross. Yes, carried out by those He created and came to save, no less.

But the fact that it’s no surprise allows us to recognize it for what it is and forge ahead with our playbook – which is Scripture – to love God and others, pray for those who persecute us, and to defend God’s Word here on earth. So please continue to do those things.

There are many reasonable, albeit timid, legislators who need you to help them stand up against these assaults on basic values. And please know that the witness slips you filled out on-line against HB 1286 really do witness to many in our Capitol against the lie that gender is chosen by people rather than by God. (“So God created mankind in his own image…male and female he created them” – Gen. 1:27 and “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart” – Jer. 1:5)

Finally, please know that your prayers are felt and invaluable to our cause. We at IFI appreciate them. I pray every day for the far-left – for their health and welfare and their coming closer to God. This is the same prayer I say for myself and my family. This is a spiritual battle, after all.  Do we have the votes to stop HB 1286? I don’t know. I do know this, though. We have a God Who has already won the victory over Satan, both in this world and the next. Which is why God never asks us to be successful. Rather, God only asks us to be faithful to Him – both in our private lives and public capacities.

Take ACTION: Click HERE to send a message to your local state representative to ask him/her to vote against this legislation when it comes up for a vote on the House floor sometime this session. Urge them to reject this foolish woke agenda that fails to recognize biological facts. Ask them to protect the privacy, dignity and safety of all Illinois citizens, especially women and girls.

Please, speak out against this destructive bill.